LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf Jl'S % 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



USES OF WATER 



IN- 



Sekltlt 'kqd ©i^e^e. 



A Practicai Treatise on the Bath, 
its History and Uses. 



By J. H. KELLOGG, M. D. 






*\ 







PUBLISHED AT 

THE OFFICE OF THE HEALTH REFORMER, 

BATTLE CREEK, MICH. 

1876. 



Tf; 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, 

By J. H. KELLOGG, M. D., 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PREFACE. 



Since the announcement of the alleged discovery of Pries s- 
nitz, about fifty years ago, there has been no scarcity of books 
upon "Hydropathy," " Water-Cure," and kindred topics. 
With rare exceptions, these works have been, in reality, little 
better than advertising mediums for some individual or insti- 
tution. As might be expected in works prepared for such 
purposes, they have contained numerous and flagrant exag- 
gerations of the effects of water as a remedial agent, often 
representing it as a specific for certain maladies and a sure 
preventive of others. These extravagant accounts, together with 
various absurd teachings relating to methods of application, 
have rendered just the popular verdict indicated by the fact 
that the dingy shelves of nearly every second-hand book store 
in New York and Philadelphia, as well as other large cities, are 
laden with these musty old volumes which rest beneath the ac- 
cumulated dust of years. 

The objects of this work may be briefly summarized as fol- 
lows : — 

1. To present ii careful and candid account of the nature of 
water and its physiological effects. 

2. To explain the effects of water when used as a remedy for 
disease, and to demonstrate its value as a remedial agent. 

3. To show that the employment of water in the treatment 
of disease has been practiced by the most eminent physicians 
of all ages, and is not a modern discovery. 

(3) 



IV PREFACE. 

4. To expose those absurd and erroneous practices which 
have brought the use of water as a remedy into disrepute, and 
hare thus deterred scientific physicians from adopting it. 

5. To provide a convenient manual of the various methods 
of applying water. 

The reader will observe that water is not presented as a 
panacea. Its use is not advocated as a specialty. It is only 
recommended as one of the many potent agencies which may 
be successfully employed in the treatment of the numerous ills 
to which humanity is subject — a remedy which has been abused 
by quacks and tyros and disgraced by fanatics, but which still 
urges a just claim to the attention and consideration of all can- 
did persons. 

J. H. K. 
Battle Creek, Mich., Sept., 1876. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF WATER, 9 

Chemical Composition, 9 

Physical Properties, 10 

Pure Water, 11 

Hard Water, 12 

Mineral Water, 12 

Magnetic Water, 13 

HYGIENIC RELATIONS OF WATER, 15 

Structure of the Skin, 15 

The True Skin, 15 

The Cuticle, or Epidermis, 16 

The Sweat Glands, 17 

The Mucous Membranes, 17 

Functions of the Skin, 18 

Functions of the Mucous Membranes, 20 

The Hygienic Value of Water, 21 

Thirst, 22 

Regulation of Temperature by Evaporation, 24 

Depuration, 25 

Cleanliness, 25 

How to Make the Skin Healthy, 27 

Bathing Protects against Colds, 28 

Aristocratic Vermin, 29 

Prevention of Disease, 81 

Modern Neglect of the Bath, 32 

Bathing a Natural Instinct, 33 

PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF WATER, 35 

Water as a Diluent, 35 

Effects of Solvent Properties of Water, 36 

Vital Changes Increased by Water, 36 

Effects Resulting from the Modification of Temperature, 38 

The Cold Bath, 38 



VI CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Effect of Cold upon the Pulse, 40 

Effect of Cold upon Bodily Temperature, 40 

Rationale of Effects of the Cold Bath, 41 

The Hot Bath, 43 

Rationale of Effects of the Hot Bath, 44 

The Warm Bath, 46 

Sympathetic Effects of Baths, 47 

Modes of Administration of the Bath, 48 

HISTORY OF WATER CURE, 49 

The Bath in Egypt, 49 

Bathing* among the Jews, 50 

Persian Baths, 50 

The Bath among the Greeks, 50 

Roman Baths, , , 51 

Testimony of Arabian Physicians, 53 

Modern Bathing Customs, 53 

Modern Medical Use of Water, 55 

REMEDIAL PROPERTIES, 59 

Refrigerant Effects of Water, 59 

Sedative Effects of Water, 60 

Tonic Effects of Water, 60 

Anodyne Effects of Water, 60 

Antispasmotic Effects of Water, 61 

Astringent Effects of Water, 61 

Laxative Effects of Water, 61 

Emetic Effects of Water, , 61 

Eliminative Effects of Water, 61 

Alterative Effects of Water, 61 

Derivative Effects of Water, 62 

Testimony of Eminent Physicians, 62-70 

ERRORS IN WATER CURE, 71 

Cold Water Doctors, : 71 

Heroic Treatment, 72 

Crisis, 74 

Hydropathic Quacks, 75 

Ignorance among Hydropathists, 75 

A Popular Error, „ 76 



CONTENTS. Vll 

Page. 

Absurd Claims, 77 

Neglect of Other Remedies, 78 

Rational Hydropathy, 78 

APPLICATIONS OF WATER, 70 

Equalization of Circulation, 79 

Regulation of Temperature, 80 

Removal of Pain, 81 

To Excite Activity, 81 

Removal of Obstructions, 82 

Dilution of the Blood, 82 

Influence on the Nervous System, 82 

Temperature of Baths, 83 

How to Determine the Temperature of a Bath without a 

Thermometer, 85 

Rules for Bathing, 87-94 

General Baths, 94 

Swimming, 95 

Plunge Bath, 95 

Sponge Bath, , 96 

Rubbing Wet-Sheet, 98 

Wet-Sheet Pack, 101 

Shower Pack, 105 

Dry-Sheet Pack, 107 

Full Bath, 107 

Half Bath, 109 

Shallow Bath, 109 

Standing Shallow, 110 

Affusion, Ill 

Pail Douche, Ill 

Cataract Douche, • 112 

Hose Douche, 113 

Shower Bath, 113 

Spray Bath, 114 

Local Baths, 115 

Sitz Bath, 116 

Leg Bath, 118 

Foot Bath, 4 p 118 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Half Pack, 119 

Chest Pack, 120 

Leg Pack, ,120 

Chest Wrapper, 121 

Wet Girdle, 122 

Ascending Douche, 123 

Drop Bath, 123 

Arm Bath, 124 

Head Bath, 124 

Eye Bath, ' 125 

Ear Bath, 127 

Nose Bath, 127 

Compresses, 128 

Fomentations, 131 

Refrigerant Applications, 133 

Miscellaneous Baths, , 136 

Vapor Bath, 136 

Russian Bath, 138 

Hot-Air Bath, 139 

Turkish Bath, 140 

Electric Bath, 141 

Electro-Vapor Bath, 143 

Dry Rubbing-Sheet, 143 

Dry Hand-Rubbing, 144 

Air Bath, 144 

Sun Bath, 145 

Sea-Bathing, 146 

Medicated Baths, 147 

Oil Bath, 147 

Novel Baths, 149 

Mud Bath, 149 

Earth Bath, 149 

Enema, ' 149 

Water Emetic, 151 

Dry Hot Applications, 151 

Water-Drinking, , , 153 

How to Make a Filter, 154 



Uses of ^ater 

IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES, 



WATER is one of the most abundant ele- 
ments in nature. As rivers, lakes, seas, 
and oceans, it covers three-fourths of the earths 
surface. It even enters largely into the forma- 
tion of the solid rocks. The clearest and purest 
air contains it in large quantities as an invisible 
gas ; while in clouds, fogs, and mists, it appears 
in the form of minute drops. 

Water also forms a very considerable part of 
all vegetable productions, and constitutes about 
three-fourths of the human body, as well as other 
animal tissues. The blood and the brain are each 
about four-fifths water, while the fluid secretions 
and excretions contain more than nine-tenths of 
their weight of this limpid fluid. 

Chemical Composition. — The chemi&t desig- 
nates water as hydrogen oxide, and represents it 
by the chemical formula, H 2 0, which signifies 
that it is composed of the two gases, hydrogen 

Water. B 



10 USES OF WATER 

and oxygen, in the proportion of two volumes of 
the former to one of the latter. Both of these 
gases are colorless, transparent, tasteless, and 
odorless. Hydrogen is the lightest gas known ; 
oxygen is the great supporter of combustion and 
animal life and heat. Water is produced by the 
burning, or oxidation, of hydrogen, a process at- 
tended with very little light, but most intense 
heat. The two gases are explosive when mixed. 

Physical Properties. — Water exists in three 
states; viz., as a solid, in the form of ice; as 
a liquid, its most common form ; and as a va- 
por, in the form of steam. When in the last 
condition, the gaseous, it is invisible. That to 
which the term steam is very commonly applied, 
is not steam, but water in a state of fine divis- 
ion, or mist. 

Below 32° F., pure water exists in the form of 
ice. Between 32° and 212°, it is a liquid. At 212°, 
it is converted into vapor. Water also slowly 
evaporates at all temperatures below 212°, being 
absorbed and held in solution by the air. 

Water possesses the greatest specific heat of 
any substance. By specific heat is meant the 
actual amount of heat required to elevate its 
temperature a given number of degrees. For ex- 
ample, it requires ten times as much heat to raise 
a pound of water 1° in temperature as to elevate 
a pound of copper 1° in temperature. To raise 
the temperature of a pound of lead 1°, requires 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. 11 

only one-thirtieth" as much heat as to produce 
the same effect upon a pound of water. Water 
absorbs more heat by elevation of temperature 
than any other substance. In passing from the 
solid to the liquid state, it absorbs a vast amount 
of heat without any elevation of temperature. 
The same thing occurs in the conversion of water 
into steam or vapor by evaporation. In the 
evaporation of one pound of water, as much heat 
is absorbed, or rendered latent, as would suffice 
to raise nearly a thousand pounds of water one 
degree in temperature. This heat is abstracted 
from surrounding objects; and, hence, evaporation 
is one of the most powerful means of producing 
cold. The effect is the same, no matter what the 
temperature at which evaporation occurs. 

Water is not the best conductor of heat, but 
it conducts much more readily than air, and 
readily communicates its heat to bodies with 
which it comes in contact, also abstracting heat 
when of a lower temperature, when changing 
from a solid to a liquid state, or from the liquid 
to the gaseous condition. 

One of the most useful properties of water is 
its power to dissolve numerous substances, its 
solvent properties being nearly universal. To 
this property it owes its value as a cleansing 
agent. 

Pure Water.— Absolutely pure water is not 
found in nature. Rain water is the nearest ap- 



12 USES OF WATER. 

proach to it ; but even this gathers impurities of 
various sorts as it falls through the air, and often 
becomes very unwholesome by the absorption of 
foul gases and the collection of dust in this way. 
For any use connected with the human body, the 
purest water is always preferable to any other. 
Filtered rain water and distilled water are the 
purest forms of water attainable. 

Hard Water. — Water is said to be hard when 
it will not produce a good lather with soap, but 
forms curds instead. Hardness is due to the 
presence of earthy salts in the water ; salts of 
lime — chalk and gypsum — are the most common. 
Ten grains per gallon of any of these salts is suf- 
ficient to render water hard and unfit for use, 
though some waters furnished to cities for gen- 
eral use contain from 70 to 160 grains per gallon 
of solid matter. Hard water is unfit for cleans- 
ing purposes because its mineral ingredients form 
insoluble compounds with fatty substances. When 
mixed with soap, the lime or other mineral takes 
the place of the soda or potash in the soap, and 
forms an insoluble curd, instead of a lather. 

Mineral Water. — Water containing in solution 
salts of iron, magnesia, or other metallic elements, 
as well as sulphur, arsenic, iodine, or any com- 
pound of these or other elements which are ca- 
pable of imparting a nauseous or saline taste, 
an unpleasant odor, or medicinal properties, has 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. 13 

been much employed for the cure of all sorts 
of chronic ailments. Such waters are totally- 
unfit for general use for drinking or cooking pur- 
poses, and certainly possess no particular advan- 
tages as cleansing agents. Whether they are use- 
ful as medicines is a medical question which we 
do not purpose to consider here ; but one would 
naturally suppose that water which is unfit to 
cleanse the outside of the body could not be of 
very great utility as an internal application. 

Magnetic Water. — Within the last few years, 
the scientific world has been startled with the 
alleged discovery of " magnetic wells " and "mag- 
netic springs " in various parts of the coun- 
try. The claim has been made and stoutly de- 
fended by interested parties that the water fur- 
nished from these sources is magnetic in charac- 
ter, and possesses wonderful healing virtues on 
that account. The truth in the matter, when 
viewed in the light of science, seems to be that 
the water of these much-lauded wells is no more 
magnetic than any other water; the magnetic 
phenomena are all explicable by well-known laws 
of physics, without attaching to the water any 
magnetic properties. A close examination shows 
that the iron pipe through which the water passes 
is the only magnetic object. The supposition that 
the pipe derives its magnetism from the water is 
both unnecessary and illogical. In the first place, 
any iron pipe or rod placed vertical in the ground 



14 USES OF WATER. 

—or, better, placed parallel to the earth's axis- 
will spontaneously become magnetic. The pro- 
duction of magnetism is greatly favored by the 
friction of flowing water, and by jarring, as beat- 
ing with a hammer. In the second place, the 
water possesses no magnetism to impart. In 
view of these facts, the conclusion is inevitable 
that so-called magnetic water has no existence 
except in the minds of certain persons whose 
credulity greatly exceeds their scientific knowl- 
edge. 

"Magnetic" wells and springs are ingenious 
humbugs. Thousands of people are duped by 
them. Hundreds are benefited by getting well 
washed, and by enjoying recreation and pleas- 
ant social surroundings. The curative effects are 
attributed to the imaginary magnetism, while 
other more tangible agents are the real means of 
cure. 



HYGIENIC RELATIONS OF WATER, 



In order to be able to appreciate the value of 
water as a means of preserving health, it is nec- 
essary to understand something of the structure 
and functions of those portions of the body to 
which it is directly applied ; viz., the skin, exter- 
nally, and the mucous membrane, in the interior 
of the body. 

STRUCTURE OF THE SKIN, 

The skin is composed of two principal layers ; 
a thin outer layer, called the epidermis, cuticle, 
or scarf skin, and a deeper structure, the true 
skin, or dermis. We will describe the latter 
first. 

The True Skin. — This structure covers the en- 
tire surface of the body. It varies in thickness 
according to its location, being thickest upon 
the soles of the feet, the palms of the hands, the 
back, and the outer portions of the thighs. Its 
basis is a dense network of elastic fibers, among 
which are intricately mingled minute blood-ves- 
sels, nerve fibers, and lymphatic or absorbent ves- 
sels. These are most numerous near the upper 
surface, and are arranged in loops upon little ele- 
vations called papillae. In the palms of the 



16 USES OF WATER. 

hands and upon the soles of the feet these papillae 
are disposed in rows with so much regularity as 
to give to those parts a minutely furrowed ap- 
pearance. 

The skin also contains little sacs, or follicles, in 
which the hairs originate. In its deeper portions 
are found two kinds of glands ; sebaceous glands 
for the secretion of sebaceous or fatty matter to 
lubricate the skin, and the perspiratory or sweat 
glands, the latter of which will receive a more 
definite description shortly. 

The Cuticle, or Epidermis. — At the upper por- 
tion of the true skin, new cells are being constant- 
ly formed, which become old in a short time and 
are pressed outward by the formation beneath 
them of other new cells. The old cells become 
shriveled and flattened as they grow older, and 
by a continuation of the process described, nu- 
merous layers of cells are formed upon the sur- 
face of the true skin, the lowest of which is 
composed of newly formed cells, while the up- 
permost one is made up of dessicated cells having 
more the appearance of horny scales than of cells. 
These several layers constitute the epidermis, or 
outer skin. It is totally devoid of sensibility, and 
has no blood-vessels. It is, in fact, dead, and is 
useful only as a protection to living parts beneath. 

Scattered among the cells of the epidermis are 
colored cells, which give to the skin its proper 
color. In the Caucasian race, these cells are few ; 



HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 17 

in the negro, they are abundant ; while in the 
albino, they are wholly absent. 

The Sweat Glands- — A close examination of 
the little ridges found upon the palms of the 
hands, by the aid of a small magnifying glass, 
will reveal what appear to be fine transverse lines 
crossing the ridges at short intervals. A still 
closer inspection shows that the apparent lines 
are really minute openings, guarded by delicate 
valves. These are the mouths of the perspiratory 
ducts, which convey to the surface the product 
of the sweat glands. The gland itself is merely 
a coiled tube, already described as situated deep 
down in the true skin, and is surrounded with a 
net- work of blood-vessels. The duct is simply a 
continuation of the same tube upward through 
the cuticle to the surface. It passes out upon 
the surface of the skin obliquely, thus leaving a 
small portion of the cuticle overlapping its orifice, 
forming a sort of valve. 

The number of these delicate glands is enor- 
mous. It has been carefully estimated to be 
about 2,300,000 in a single individual. The 
length of each is about one-fifteenth of an inch, 
making their aggregate length about two and 
one-half miles. 

The Mucous Membranes. — All cavities in the 
body which communicate with the surface by, 
openings are lined with a membrane which is 
called mucous, from the character of its secre- 



18 USES OF WATER. 

tion. The mucous membranes are continuous 
with the skin at the natural openings of the body, 
and very closely resemble it in structure, being 
formed of several layers, like the skin, and having 
a superficial portion made up of layers formed 
by the deeper tissues. Mucous membrane forms 
the lining of the air-passages and lungs, of the 
whole alimentary canal, and of the urinal and 
genital organs. Its extent in the lungs alone 
has been estimated by scientists at 1400 square 
feet, or more than seventeen times the whole ex- 
tent of the skin. 

Functions of the Skin. — The skin performs a 
number of very important offices for the body. 
Perhaps the most important is that of excretion. 
Each of its millions of sweat glands is actively 
and constantly engaged in separating from the 
blood impurities which would destroy life if re- 
tained. These foul products are poured out 
through a corresponding number of minute sew- 
ers, and deposited upon the surface of the body 
to the amount of several ounces each day, or sev- 
eral pounds, if the whole perspiration be included 
in the estimate, as is commonly done. 

The skin is also an organ of respiration ; it ab- 
sorbs oxygen, and exhales carbonic acid gas, with 
other poisonous gases. The amount of respiratory 
labor performed by the skin is about one-sixtieth 
of that done by the lungs. In some of the lower 
animals, the whole work of respiration is per- 



HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 19 

formed by the skin. In the common frog, the 
respiratory action of the skin and of the lungs is 
about equal. 

Another important office of the cutaneous tis- 
sue is absorption. The absorption of oxygen has 
been already referred to ; but it absorbs liquids 
as well as gases, and to a much greater extent. 
By immersion in a warm bath for some time, the 
weight of the body may be very considerably 
increased. Dr. Watson, an English physician of 
note, reports the case of a boy whose weight in- 
creased nine pounds in twenty-four hours solely 
by cutaneous absorption of moisture from the air. 
This extraordinary action was occasioned by dis- 
ease. Seamen, when deprived of fresh water, 
quench their thirst by wetting their clothing 
with sea- water, the aqueous portion of which is 
absorbed by the skin. The lymphatic vessels are 
believed to be the principal agents in absorption. 

Another remarkable function of the skin is the 
regulation of temperature. By its density and 
non-conducting property it prevents the escape 
of necessary heat to a considerable degree. But 
when the amount of heat generated in the body 
becomes excessive, either from abnormal vital 
activities, or by exposure to external heat, the 
skin relieves the suffering tissues by favoring the 
escape of heat. This desirable end is attained 
through the evaporation of the moisture poured 
out upon the surface by the perspiratory glands. 

It has been estimated that the evaporation 



20 USES OF WATER. 

of water from the cutaneous surface and the mu- 
cous membrane of the lungs occasions the loss 
each minute of sufficient heat to raise a pint of 
water 100° F. in temperature. This is certainly 
a powerful cooling process. 

Lastly, we mention as a further function of the 
skin, and one which is not the least in import- 
ance, its utility as a sensitive surface. It is a 
well-established physiological fact that the mind 
is only a reflection of impressions received from 
without, or at least that its character is largely 
determined by the nature of the impressions 
made upon its organs of sensibility. The skin is 
the organ of touch, and the various modifications 
of tactile sensibility. It is the most extensive 
organ of sensibility in the body, and is very 
closely connected with all the great nerve centers, 
so that it is perhaps the most efficient means 
through which to affect the general nervous sys- 
tem. Its intimate sympathy with internal organs 
is shown in a great number of diseases in which 
this organ evidently suffers on account of disabil- 
ity of some other one. 

Functions of the Mucous Membranes. — The 

functions of the mucous membranes are strict- 
ly analagous to those of the skin. Like the 
latter organ, a mucous membrane excretes and 
absorbs. It eliminates foul matters, and absorbs 
useful substances in a fluid state. 

The importance of the functions of the skin is 



HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 21 

shown by the fact that a person quickly dies 
when its action is interrupted. A coat of varnish 
or caoutchouc, applied over the whole skin, will 
kill a man almost as quickly as a fatal dose of 
strychnia. In experiments upon animals, horses, 
dogs, and other animals have been killed by ob- 
structing the action of the skin by some similar 
means. A little boy was once killed by covering 
him with gold leaf to make him represent an 
angel at a great celebration. 

The offensive odor of the perspiration, and the 
characteristic smell of the sweat-soiled under- 
clothing of a tobacco user, are facts which well 
attest the value of the cutaneous functions in re- 
moving impurities from the body. 

We are now prepared to consider, understand- 
ing^— 

The Hygienic Value of Water. — If we except 
pure air, it may safely be said that no other ele- 
ment in nature sustains so important relations to 
the living system as does pure water. An individ- 
ual will live much longer on water alone, than 
if deprived of drink. Water constitutes a large 
proportion of all our food, varying, in grains and 
vegetables, from fifteen to more than ninety per 
cent. If the water thus contained in solid food 
were wholly removed, an individual would doubt- 
less be enabled to subsist longer on water only 
than on solid food so treated. Though water un- 
dergoes no change in the body, and hence takes 



22 USES OF WATER. 

no part in the development of force, it is abso- 
lutely essential to the performance of the vital 
functions, being necessary to enable the various 
organs to perform their offices in the mainte- 
nance of the vital activities. 

The circulatory system is especially dependent 
upon this element. Water is the menstruum 
which floats the blood corpuscles and the varied 
nutritive and ex'crementitious elements which 
form the blood. By its aid, the nutrient parti- 
cles destined to enter into the structure of the 
body are conveyed to the most minute and remote 
fiber of the intricate human mechanism where 
repair or growth is demanded. No other element 
in nature is so well suited to this exact purpose 
as water. It is so limpid and mobile that it can 
circulate through the most delicate capillaries 
without friction, and can even find its way, by 
osmosis, into parts inaccessible by openings. 

Thirst. — Water is continually passing away 
from the body. The dry air entering the lungs 
by respiration absorbs it from the moist surface 
of the pulmonary membranes. A large portion 
is lost by evaporation from the skin, upon which 
it is poured out by millions of little sewers, the 
perspiratory ducts, for the purpose of washing 
away impurities from the system. The kidneys 
remove a considerable quantity, with poisonous 
excrementitious elements in solution. Through 
still other channels water is removed, aggregat- 



HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 23 

ing, in all, the amount of five pints in twenty- 
four hours in the average individual. This loss 
must he made good, in order to preserve the req- 
uisite fluidity of the blood ; and nature expresses 
the demand for water by thirst. 

Some people rarely drink liquid of any kind. 
Others consume several pints in a day. The nat- 
ure of an individual's occupation will in a 
measure determine the amount of drink required. 
Stokers, glass-blowers, and others whose vocation 
necessitates profuse perspiration, require more 
water than others. It will be noticed, moreover, 
that the character of the diet has much to do with 
the demand for drink. Those who subsist mostly 
upon fruits and grains, and other vegetable pro- 
ductions, avoiding the use of stimulating and irri- 
tating condiments, require little or no addition 
to the juices contained in their food. Those who 
pursue an opposite course in dietetics, using 
largely animal food, salt, pepper, spices, and other 
condiments, and perhaps taking a little wine or 
something stronger for their stomach's sake, are 
under the necessity of taking considerable quan- 
tities of fluid in addition to that provided by their 
food. 

Water is the only substance which will quench 
thirst. Beverages which contain other substances 
are useful as drinks just in proportion to the 
amount of water which they contain, and are un- 
wholesome just in proportion as the added ele- 
ments are injurious, 



24 USES OF WATER. 

Regulation of Temperature. — The evaporation 
of water from the surface of the human body is 
one of the most admirable adaptations of means 
to ends exhibited in animal life. All of the vi- 
tal activities in constant operation in the body 
occasion the production of heat. Sometimes the 
amount of heat is greater than is needed, and so 
great as would destroy the vitality of certain tis- 
sues if it were not speedily conducted away. By 
evaporation of water from the skin, this is accom- 
plished. When external heat is great, perspira- 
tion is more active than when it is less, and thus 
the temperature of the body is maintained at 
about 100° F. under all circumstances. By this 
wonderful provision of nature, man is enabled to 
exist under the great extremes of heat and cold 
presented in the frigid regions at the poles and 
the torrid climate of the equator. By the aid of 
clothing, human beings have survived a contin- 
ued temperature of 60° to 100° below zero; and, 
by the protective influence of evaporation, an 
average of 100° above zero has been endured in 
tropical climes. For short periods, so great a de- 
gree of heat as 350° F., or even 600° has been borne 
with impunity in exceptional instances. In these 
cases the extreme heat which would otherwise 
reduce the body to a cinder in a few moments is 
rapidly conducted away by evaporation without 
occasioning any damage. 



HYGIENIC KELATIONS. 25 

Depuration. — Every thought, every movement, 
the most delicate vital action, occasions the de- 
struction of a portion of the living tissues, which 
is thus converted into dead matter, and becomes 
poisonous. Many kinds of poisonous substances 
are produced within the body in this way. 
Some of them are very deadly, and must be 
hurried out of the system with great rapidity, 
as urea and cholesterine. Here the marvelous 
utility of water is again displayed. It dissolves 
these poisons wherever it comes in contact with 
them, and then as it is brought by the current 
of the circulation to the proper organs— -the 
kidneys, liver, skin, lungs, and other emuno 
tories — it is expelled from the body, still holding 
in solution the animal poisons which are so rap- 
idly fatal if retained. 

Cleanliness. — The skin is one of the most im- 
portant depurating organs of the whole body. 
From each of its millions of pores constantly 
flows a stream laden with the poisonous products 
of disintegration. As the water evaporates, it 
leaves behind these non-volatile poisons, which 
are deposited as a thin film over the whole sur- 
face of the skin. As each day passes, the proc- 
ess continues, and the film thickens. If the skin 
is moderately active, three or four days suffice 
to form a layer which may be compared to a thin 
coating of varnish or sizing. The accumulation 
continues to increase, unless removed, and soon 

Water. C 



26 USES OF WATER. 

undergoes further processes of decomposition. It 
putrefies, rots, in fact, and develops an odor char- 
acteristic and quite too familiar, though anything 
but pleasant, being at once foul, fetid, putrid, pun- 
gent, uncleanly, and unpardonable. 

But the offense to the nose is not the extent of 
the evil. The unclean accumulation chokes the 
mouths of the million little sewers which should 
be engaged in eliminating these poisons, and thus 
obstructs their work. Being retained in contact 
with the skin, some portions are reabsorbed, to- 
gether with the results of advancing decay, thus 
repoisoning the system, and necessitating their 
elimination a second time. 

Here water serves a most useful end if pro- 
perly applied. It is unexcelled as a detergent, 
and by frequent application to the skin will keep 
it wholly free from the foul matters described. 
The necessity for frequent ablutions is well shown 
by the fact that nearly two pounds of a poison- 
laden solution, the perspiration, is daily spread 
upon the surface of the body. It is not an un- 
common occurrence to meet with people who 
have never taken a general bath in their lives. 
Imagine, if possible, the condition of a man's skin, 
at the age of seventy or eighty years, which has 
never once felt the cleansing effects of a thorough 
bath! 

One of the most serious effects of this accumu- 
lation of filth is the clogging of the perspiratory 
ducts. Their valve-like orifices become obstructed 



HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 27 

very easily, and depuration is then impossible. 
It is not wonderful that so many people have tor- 
pid skins. The remedy is obvious, and always 
available. 

How to Make the Skin Healthy. — A man who 

has a perfectly healthy skin is nearly certain to 
be healthy in other respects. In no way can the 
health of the skin be preserved but by frequent 
bathing. A daily or tri-weekly bath, accom- 
panied by friction, will keep the skin clean, sup- 
ple, and vigorous. There is no reason why the 
whole surface of the body should not be washed 
as well as the face and hands. The addition of 
a little soap is necessary to remove the oily secre- 
tion deposited upon the skin. 

A lady of fashion, in enumerating the means 
for preserving beauty, says : " Cleanliness, my 
last recipe (and which is applicable to all ages), 
is of most powerful efficacy. It maintains the 
limbs in their pliancy, the skin in its softness, 
the complexion in its luster, the eyes in their 
brightness, the teeth in their purity, and the con- 
stitution in its fairest vigor. To promote clean- 
liness, I can recommend nothing preferable to 
bathing. The frequent use of tepid baths is not 
more grateful to the sense than it is salutary to 

the health and to beauty By such 

means, the women of the East render their skins 
softer than that of the tenderest babe in this cli- 
mate/' " I strongly recommend to every lady to 



28 USES OF WATEK. 

make a bath as indispensable an article in her 
house as a looking-glass." 

When the foul matters which ought to be elim- 
inated by the skin and quickly removed from 
the body are allowed to remain unremoved, the 
skin becomes clogged and inactive, soon loses its 
natural luster and color, becoming dead, dark, 
and unattractive. When bathing is so much 
neglected, it is no marvel that paints, powders, 
lotions, and cosmetics of all sorts, are in such 
great demand. A daily bath, at the proper tem- 
perature, is the most agreeable and efficient of all 
cosmetics. 

Bathing Protects against Colds.— It is an er- 
roneous notion that bathing renders a per- 
son more liable to "take cold, by opening the 
pores." Colds are produced by disturbance of 
the circulation, and not by opening or closing the 
pores of the skin. Frequent bathing increases 
the activity of the circulation in the skin, so that 
a person is far less subject to chilliness and to 
taking cold. An individual who takes a daily 
bath has almost perfect immunity from colds, 
and is little susceptible to changes of tempera- 
ture. Colds are sometimes taken after bathing, 
but this results from some neglect of the proper 
precautions necessary to prevent such an occur- 
rence, which are carefully stated elsewhere in 
this work. 



HYGIENIC BELATIONS. 29 

Aristocratic Vermin. — Doubtless, not a few of 
those very refined and fastidious people who 
spend many hours in the application of all sorts 
of lotions and other compounds to the face 
and hands, for the purpose of beautifying those 
portions of the skin exposed to view — while neg- 
lecting as persistently those parts of the skin 
protected from observation — would be very much 
surprised to learn the true condition of the un- 
washed portions of their cutaneous covering. They 
instinctively shrink with disgust from the sight of 
a vermin-covered beggar, in whose cuticle bur- 
rows the acarus scabiei (itch-mite), while troops 
of larger insects are racing through his tangled 
locks and nibbling at his scaly scalp. It is quite 
possible that many a fair "unwashed" would 
faint with fright if apprized of the fact that her 
own precious covering is the home of whole 
herds of horrid looking parasites which so nearly 
resemble the itch-mite as to be at least very 
near relatives, perhaps half-brothers or cousins. 
The name of this inhabitant of skins unwashed 
is as formidable as the aspect of the creature, 
though it does not require a microscope to dis- 
play its proportions, as does the latter; scientists 
call it demodex folliculorum. 

The demodex makes himself at home in the 
sebaceous follicles, where he dwells with his fam- 
ily. Here the female lays her eggs and rears her 
numerous progeny, undisturbed by the frictions of 
any flesh-brush, and only suffering a very tran- 



30 USES OF WATER. 

sient deluge at very long intervals, if such a cas- 
ualty ever happens. In studying the structure 
of these little parasites, we have found several 
tenants occupying a single follicle, pursuing their 
domestic operations quite unmolested by any ex- 
ternal disturbance. 

The demodex has been transplanted from the 
human subject to the dog; and it is found that 
the new colony thrives very remarkably, and 
soon produces a disease apparently identical with 
that known as " mange." 

We have not space to describe in detail these 
savage little brutes, with their eight legs, armed 
with sharp claws, bristling heads, sharp lancets 
for puncturing and burrowing into the skin, and 
their powerful suckers for drawing the blood of 
their victims. We only care to impress upon the 
mind of the reader the fact that neglect of bath- 
ing and friction of the skin is sure to encourage 
the presence of millions of these parasites, and 
that the only remedy is scrupulous cleanliness of 
the whole person. Like their relatives, the itch- 
mite, they do not thrive under hydropathic treat- 
ment, and are very averse to soap and water. 
The best way to get rid of them is to drown 
them out. They do not produce the irritation 
which characterizes the presence of the itch in- 
sect, so that this evidence of their presence is 
wanting. But they are sure to be present in a 
torpid, unhealthy, unwashed skin, no matter how 
delicate or fastidious its possessor, 



HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 31 

Prevention of Disease. — Neglecting to keep 
the skin active and vigorous by frequent ablu- 
tions is one of the most prolific causes of nearly- 
all varieties of skin diseases, which are too often 
aggravated by gross dietetic habits. The rela- 
tion between the cutaneous function and that of 
the kidneys is so intimate that neglect of the 
kind mentioned, resulting as it must in obstruc- 
tion of function, is a very common cause of most 
dangerous disorders of the renal organs. Inac- 
tivity of the skin is also very commonly asso- 
ciated with dyspepsia, with rheumatism, gout, 
hysteria, and other nervous derangements. It is 
also a not uncommon cause of bronchial and pul- 
monary affections. It is quite evident, then, that 
the proper and most efficient means of prevent- 
ing these diseases is to maintain the functional 
vigor of the skin by the proper application of 
water. 

The value of water as a prophylactic, or pre- 
ventive, of disease, was recognized by the ancients, 
and the bath was employed by them to an extent 
which has never been equaled in modern times. 
The great Hebrew lawgiver, Moses, enjoined up- 
on his followers the most scrupulous cleanliness, 
making bathing a part of their religious duties. 
His example was followed by the ingenious found- 
er of Mohammedanism, who required his disciples 
to bathe before each of their five daily prayers. 
Among the Greeks, and especially the temperate 
Spartans, the bath was regarded as one of th§ 



32 USES OF WATEE. 

most essential means of securing physical health. 
Daily ablutions were practiced by them, every 
person participating in the bath, from the new- 
born babe to the oldest inhabitant. The Ro- 
mans cultivated bathing to a remarkable extent, 
making it a luxury rather than the dreaded pen- 
ance which many moderns seem to regard it. 

Modern Neglect of the Bath. — The most cele- 
brated physicians, from Hippocrates down to 
Galen, Celsus, Boerhaave, and a host of more 
modern physicians, have agreed in eulogizing the 
bath as an invaluable means for preserving the 
health. Notwithstanding this fact, it seems that 
as civilization and enlightenment have advanced, 
the importance of the bath has been increasing- 
ly disregarded. The magnificent public baths 
of the Romans were neglected as that em- 
pire declined, until they were finally destroyed. 
Michelet, a historian of some note, tells us that 
for a thousand years during the Dark Ages the 
bath was unknown in Europe. This fact alone 
is in his opinion sufficient to account for the ter- 
rible plagues and pestilences of that period. A 
modern writer declares that in Spain the relig- 
ious instincts of the people have become so per- 
verted that it is considered sacrilege for a woman 
to bathe more than once in her life, which is up- 
on the eve of her marriage. In more enlightened 
countries, it is to be hoped that the condition of 
the feminine cuticle is not quite so bad as this ; 



HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 33 

but another writer, an Englishman, asserts that 
a large proportion of his countrymen " never sub- 
mitted themselves to an entire personal ablution 
in their lives, and many an octogenarian has sunk 
into his grave with the accumulated dirt of eighty 
years upon his skin." American customs in this 
respect are not much better than the English; 
but it is gratifying to know that a very percep- 
tible improvement is becoming evident in both 
countries. Our intercourse with Oriental nations 
and barbarians has taught us wholesome lessons 
in the care of the person. There is scarcely a 
savage tribe to be found in the deepest jungles 
of tropical Africa the members of which do not 
pay more attention to the preservation of a 
clean and healthy skin than the average Ameri- 
can or Englishman. 

Bathing a Natural Instinct. — All nature at- 
tests the importance of the bath. The rain is 
a natural shower bath in which all vegetation 
participates, and geins refreshment. Its invigo- 
rating influence is seen in the brighter appear- 
ance, more erect bearing, and fresher colors, of all 
plants after a gentle rain. The flowers manifest 
their gratitude by exhaling in greater abundance 
their fragrant odors. Dumb animals do not neg- 
lect their morning bath. Who has not seen the 
robin skimming along the surface of the lake or 
stream, dipping its wings in the cool waters, and 
laving its plumage with the crystal drops which 



34 USES OF WATER. 

its flapping pinions send glittering into the air ? 
No school boy who has ever seen the elephant 
drink will forget how the huge beast improved 
the opportunity to treat himself to a shower bath, 
and perhaps the, spectators as well, for he is very 
generous in his use of water. 

If man's instincts were not rendered obtuse 
by the perverted habits of civilization, he would 
value the bath as highly and employ it as freely 
as his more humble fellow-creatures, whose in- 
stinctive impulses have remained more true to 
nature, because they have not possessed that de- 
gree of intelligence which would make it possible 
for them to become so grossly perverted as have 
the members of the human race. Man goes 
astray from nature not because he is deficient in 
instinct, but because he stifles the promptings of 
his better nature for the purpose of gratifying his 
propensities. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS, 



Some of the relations of water to the living 
system have been considered in the preceding 
section. In the present connection we shall con- 
sider chiefly those effects resulting from the ap- 
plication of water to the human body in various 
ways which give to it its value as a remedial 
agent, though its therapeutical applications will 
be deferred to succeeding sections. 

The effects of water upon the human system 
are the results of the operation of its physical 
properties in conjunction with the vital forces. 
As with all other agents, its effects may be either 
local, or general, according to the mode of appli- 
cation. Different effects are also produced ac- 
cording as the administration is internal or ex- 
ternal. Many other modifying circumstances, as 
age, sex, and physical condition, affect the results 
in a greater or lesser degree. 

Water affects the system through three differ- 
ent means ; viz : — 

1. As a diluent; 

2. By its solvent properties ; 

3. By modifying the general or local tempera- 
ture of the body. 

1. Water as a Diluent. — Water is received into 
the system by absorption, either through a mu- 



36 USES OF WATER. 

oous membrane, or through the skin. It usually 
enters through the medium of the stomach and 
intestinal canal. When received into the blood, 
it of course increases its volume, and produces 
an increased fullness of the circulatory vessels, 
which are never distended to their fullest extent, 
and hence allow room for change in the volume 
of their contents. The blood is necessarily ren- 
dered more fluid, and if previously in any degree 
viscid, its circulation is quickened by its dilution. 

2. The Effects of the Solvent Properties of 
Water. — With the exception of air, water is 
the most transient of all the elements received 
into the body. It is eliminated by the skin, the 
lungs, the kidneys, and the intestines. By its solv- 
ent action, it dissolves the various poisonous prod- 
ucts of the disintegration of the tissues. The 
volume of the blood being increased, more water 
comes in contact with the debris contained in 
any part, and, in consequence, the same undesir- 
able products are more perfectly removed. The 
increased amount of excrementitious matter in 
solution is brought in contact with the various 
depurating organs, producing, notably, the fol- 
lowing results : — 

a. A n increase of the urinary excretion. It 
is an important fact that this increase does not 
consist in the addition of water merely, or dilu- 
tion, but that there is also an increased amount 
of urea, the chief excrementitious principle re- 
moved from the blood by the kidneys. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS. 37 

b. An increase in the cutaneous excretion. 
Water drinking is one of the most efficient means 
of producing copious perspiration, which, as with 
the urinary excretion, is not a mere elimination 
of water, but is a real depurating process. 

c. Increased action of the intestinal mucous 
membrane. Elimination from the mucous mem- 
brane of the intestinal track, which is an impor- 
tant organ of excretion, is also increased by drink- 
ing freely of pure water. The result of this in- 
creased action is not only to remove from the 
blood some of its foulest constituents, but to ren- 
der more fluid the contents of the intestines, and 
thus tend to obviate that almost universal accom- 
paniment of sedentary habits, constipation. 

The removal of clogging matters from the sys- 
tem in this manner allows greater freedom of 
vital action, so that the activities of the body are 
quickened, and both waste and repair, disintegra- 
tion and assimilation, are accelerated. 

The use of water thus hastens all the vital 
processes by increasing the change of tissue. 
This result is of course chiefly obtained by em- 
ploying it as a drink. The experiments of Lie- 
big fully confirm this view. He expressly men- 
tions the free use of water as one of the means 
of accelerating vital change. Prof. John B. Bid- 
die, M. D., in his "Materia Medica," states that "it 
promotes both the metamorphosis and construc- 
tion of tissue," from which fact he attributes to 
it valuable curative properties, as an alterative, 



38 



USES OF WATER. 



when the removal of a morbid taint is desired, as 
in certain venereal diseases. 

3. Effects resulting from the Modification of 
Temperature. — Perhaps the most important, cer- 
tainly the most common, effects of water upon 
the living organism are those which result from 
its modifications of the temperature of the body- 
in its various modes of application. These ef- 
fects vary greatly according to the temperature, 
and the duration of the application. General 
and local applications also differ in their results. 

It should be remarked that all of the effects of 
water are really the results of the vital resistance 
of the system in its attempts to remove abnormal 
or unusual conditions, or to accommodate itself to 
new circumstances. 

Baths are divided into six classes, according to 
their temperature, as follows : — 



1. Cold, . 


. 33° to 60° F 


2. Cool, . 


. 60° " 70° 


3. Temperate, . 


. 70° " 85° 


4. Tepid, . 


. 85° " 92° 


5. Warm, . 


. 92° " 98° 


6. Hot, . 


. 98° "112 c 



For the sake of simplicity, we will consider the 
effects of water applications under three heads ; 
viz., cold, warm, and hot. 

The Cold Bath— Under this head we will con- 
sider applications of all temperatures below 85° 
F. Cold or cool water, applied to any portion of 



PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS. 39 

the body, causes instant contraction of the small 
arteries of the part, through its influence upon 
the sympathetic or vasomotor system of nerves. 
So long as the application of the unusual tem- 
perature is continued, the vascular contraction is 
maintained, and the part seems nearly bloodless. 
If the cold is below 33° F., and is long continued, 
destruction of the tissues, by freezing, will result. 

If a moderately cool or cold temperature is 
maintained for some time, the blood-vessels of the 
part are more or less permanently contracted, and 
the blood supply thus lessened. If, on the other 
hand, the application is very brief, the contrac- 
tion of the vessels is only momentary, and is fol- 
lowed by a proportionate degree of relaxation, 
and a corresponding increase in the supply of 
blood to the part, 

A very cold bath applied to any considerable 
portion of the body, and continued more than a 
very brief time, produces headache, dullness, 
sometimes nausea and vomiting, loss of sensibil- 
ity, and other unpleasant and paftful symptoms. 

It is thus seen that the effects of cold are quite 
different — exactly opposite, in fact — as the ap- 
plication is a prolonged, or a brief one. The long 
application produces effects in some degree per- 
manently sedative, while the brief application is 
followed by a momentary condition which may 
be termed shock, and which is usually followed 
very quickly by a reaction analogous to stimula- 
tion when produced in any other manner, 



40 USES OF WATER. 

Effect of Cold upon the Pulse, — The experi- 
ments of Drs. Currie, Bell, and others, show con- 
clusively that the cold bath has the uniform ef- 
fect of diminishing the frequency of the heart's 
action from ten to twenty beats in a minute be- 
low the usual standard. Upon the first applica- 
tion of cold, there is a slight increase in the rate 
of pulsation ; but this soon subsides, and is suc- 
ceeded by a marked diminution. The ultimate 
effect is the same, whether the application is made 
at its maximum degree of severity or not ; but if 
the application is first warm, being gradually re- 
duced in temperature, the result is reached with- 
out the occurrence of the unpleasant shock, or 
feeling of chilliness, which attends the sudden 
application of cold, especially in persons of deli- 
cate nervous sensibilities. The amount and after 
duration of the diminished rate of pulsation de- 
pends upon the temperature and duration of the 
bath. In health, it does not commonly extend 
beyond a few hours at most. 

Effect of Gold upon Temperature. — It was also 
shown by the same experimenters that the temper- 
ature of the body is reduced proportionately with 
the action of the heart. The natural tempera- 
ture, as shown by a thermometer placed in the 
axilla, is 98° F. During and after a cold bath, 
the thermometer applied to the same part, indi- 
cates from one-half a degree to five or six, or even 
more, degrees, diminution of temperature. In 
some cases the temperature continues to fall after 



PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS. 41 

the bath. The real temperature is lessened even 
though the skin may glow, and may seem to pos- 
sess increased warmth. Cold and heat are, within 
certain limits, wholly relative terms to the nerves 
of sensibility. What is warm at one time may 
be cold at another, though the temperature re- 
mains the same. The same temperature may be 
warm to one hand and cool to the other. Tem- 
perature can only be accurately determined by 
the thermometer. 

Rationale of Effects of the Cold Bath. — The 
manner in which the cold bath produces the sed- 
ative effects noted, is apparently simple. When 
applied locally, to a single organ or part, it di- 
minishes the circulation in the part by occasion- 
ing contraction of the muscular coats of the ar- 
terioles, or small arteries. Their caliber being 
thus lessened, they of course allow the passage of 
less blood, and the circulation in the part is di- 
minished. There are, then, three causes for the 
decrease of heat ; viz., — 

1. A portion of the heat of any part is brought 
to it by the blood ; the supply of blood being 
lessened, the heat is diminished ; 

2. Heat is produced by vital or chemical 
changes which occur in the capillaries or their 
immediate vicinity. These depend chiefly upon 
the supply of oxgen, which, again, is largely reg- 
ulated by the blood supply ; and it being lessened 



42 USES OF WATEK. 

with the blood, the amount of heat produced is 
diminished. 

3. The water in contact with the part, being of 
a lower temperature, abstracts heat from it as it 
would from any other body of a higher temper- 
ature than itself. 

When the application of cold water is more 
general, being made to the whole body, or to a 
considerable portion of it, the same effects are 
produced on a larger scale. A large proportion 
of the small arteries of the body, being brought 
under the influence of cold, are made to contract, 
thus directly lessening the circulation, and so di- 
minishing, also, the production of heat. Through 
the sympathetic system, the same effect produced 
upon the small arteries is produced also upon the 
heart, lessening the rapidity of its contractions. 
Again, it has been satisfactorily shown that the 
action of the heart is largely controlled by the ac- 
tion of the small arteries ; so that we have abund- 
ant explanation of the decrease in the rate of 
pulsation. Finally, we have a cold fluid in con- 
tact with a large portion of the body, abstracting 
heat by conduction, as well as lessening its pro- 
duction. 

Thus we see that water, when applied at a 
proper temperature, is one of the most powerful 
means of depressing the vital activities of the 
body, diminishing circulation and animal heat as 
will no other agent. The several modes for ap- 



PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS. 43 

plying it are considered in another portion of this 
work. 

The Hot Bath, — We shall include under this 
head applications of a temperature above 98° F., 
the mean temperature of the body. As with the 
cold bath, the effects differ greatly according as 
the application is brief or prolonged. Local and 
general applications also differ in their effects. 

A brief local application causes an increase in 
the circulation of a part which very closely re- 
sembles, perhaps is identical with, active conges- 
tion. The small arteries are distended, and the 
vital activities and heat of the part are increased. 
The several effects seem to be little different from 
those resulting from the application of a mild 
sinapism. The action of the vital instincts is de- 
fensive in both cases. 

When applied to special organs, special effects 
are produced. For instance, a hot fomentation 
applied to the head for a few minutes will usu- 
ally produce drowsiness by diversion of a portion 
of the blood supply of the brain to the skull and 
scalp. Prolonged applications produce a more or 
less permanent relaxation of the blood-vessels, 
and consequent congestion. 

A hot bath applied v to the whole body, or a 
large portion of .it, produces an acceleration of 
the pulse and an increase of animal heat propor- 
tionate to the temperature of the bath. A bath 
at 106° to 108° F. will increase the pulse from 



44 USES OF WATER. 

the normal standard to one hundred or one hun- 
dred and twenty beats in a minute, in a short 
time. A bath four or five degrees hotter has 
been known to increase the pulse to more than 
one hundred and fifty beats in a minute. 

When a hot bath is prolonged, the face becomes 
flushed, and the whole skin very red ; the head 
aches ; sight is sometimes dimmed ; ringing in the 
ears, faintness, a stinging pain in the skin, and 
intense desire to urinate are symptoms which are 
often present. Copious perspiration and intense 
congestion of the skin are constant effects. The 
cutaneous congestion, from relaxation of the 
blood-vessels, is apt to continue to exist after the 
bath, if it is greatly prolonged, to the serious in- 
jury of the subject. 

The effects of the vapor-bath are essentially 
the same as those described, though a somewhat 
higher degree of heat is tolerated without injury. 
In the hot-air bath, a still higher heat is borne 
with impunity. 

Rationale of Effects of the Hot Bath. — It 
scarcely need be repeated that all of the effects 
noticed, as well as those of all other baths, are 
chiefly the results of modifications of vital action 
occasioned by the agent employed. The appli- 
cation of heat to the body occasions relaxation of 
the muscular coats of the small arteries, and in- 
creased action of those vessels. No doubt this 
is for the purpose of bringing moisture to the 



. PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS. 45 

surface to protect the tissues against the unnat- 
ural heat. As is the case with cold baths, the 
causes which modify the heat are three ; viz., — 

1. The increased quantity of blood circulating 
through the part brings to it an increased amount 
of heat ; 

2. Increased vital and chemical action increas- 
es the production of heat ; 

3. The body absorbs heat from the surround- 
ing medium as any other colder object would do. 

In the general application of hot water or va- 
por, effects similar to its local effects are pro- 
duced upon the whole surface of the body, in- 
volving, also, to a considerable extent, the deeper 
structures. The pulse is accelerated because the 
small arteries are distended and more active, cre- 
ating a demand for a greater quantity of blood, 
requiring an increase in the heart's action. It 
is also quite probable that the action of the heart 
is somewhat quickened as the result of the influ- 
ence of heat upon the pneumogastric nerve which 
controls it. 

The cerebral symptoms, faintness, etc., which 
occur when heat is applied in excess, are the result 
of the diversion of so large a proportion of the 
blood into the superficial vessels. A prolonged 
hot foot bath or leg bath will often produce faint- 
ness. 

There are few agents which will so rapidly 
produce such powerfully excitant and stimulant 



46 USES OF WATER. 

effects as the hot bath. The painful and unde- 
sirable results occasioned by its incautious use 
are evidences of its power. 

The Warm Bath. — In this connection we ap- 
ply the term warm to baths of a temperature 
between 85° and 98° F., though baths of a tem- 
perature between 85° and 92° would be more ac- 
curately termed tepid, which term is applied to 
baths of that temperature elsewhere than in this 
immediate connection. 

The warm bath never exceeds the temperature 
of the body, and is usually below it. Its effect 
is uniformly to diminish the frequency of the 
pulse and of respiration, and to decrease animal 
heat. Its effects are the same as those of the 
cool or cold bath, in this respect, but they differ 
in several other particulars. Unlike the cold 
Bath, the warm bath is not accompanied by an 
unpleasant shock, or chill, and, hence, is not fol- 
lowed by reaction. It promotes the action of the 
skin in a very marked degree, increasing both 
perspiration and absorption. When continued 
for an hour or two, the weight is appreciably 
increased by the absorption of water. Its gen- 
eral effects are very mild and soothing, often in- 
clining the patient to sleep. 

This bath seems to produce its effects not so 
much by exciting the vital energies to abnormal 
action or resistance, as by supplying the most 
favorable conditions for the performance of the 



PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS. 47 

natural and usual functions. This is doubtless 
on account of its close approximation to the 
temperature of the body. In this respect, if this 
supposition be true, it differs from baths of a 
temperature either much above or greatly below 
the normal temperature of the body. 

The warm vapor bath produces effects quite 
analagous to those of the warm water bath. Its 
effect upon the processes of perspiration and ab- 
sorption is a little more marked, even with the 
same degree of temperature. * The results differ 
somewhat, according as the whole body is en- 
veloped, so that the warm vapor is taken into 
the lungs, or the head excluded. A more equable 
effect is produced by including the whole body 
in the bath, and no harm can result if the tem- 
perature is not raised above that of the body, as 
it should not be, in the warm bath. 

Sympathetic Effects.— There is scarcely room 
for doubt that many of the effects of the various 
kinds of water applications are wholly of a sym- 
pathetic character. All portions of the body are 
intimately associated together by a system of 
nerves called the sympathetic system, from their 
peculiar function. Certain portions, as the skin 
and mucous membrane, are particularly related. 
The large number of sensitive nerves which con- 
nect the skin with the brain, bring it in peculiar- 
ly close relations to that organ, and give addition- 
al potency to any agent applied to so extensive 



48 USES OF WATER. 

a surface. The well-known fact that burns of 
the skin are often the occasion of fatal ulceration 
of the mucous membrane of the intestines suf- 
ficiently attests the intimate relation between 
these two tissues ; while the effects upon the 
skin of mental emotions, as of shame and of fear, 
are conclusive evidence of the peculiar closeness 
of relation between the cerebral and cutaneous 
organs. The condition of the mind has much to 
do with the effect of a bath. 

Modes of Administration. — There are numer- 
ous modes of administering baths of all temper- 
atures, each of which produces some modification 
of the general effect of the given temperature. 
For example, such baths as the douche, the spray, 
and the shower bath, are much more cooling in 
their effects than a full bath at the same temper- 
ature ; since, in the latter case, nearly the whole 
body would be submerged in a medium of equable 
temperature, while in the case of the spray, etc., 
the body would be additionally cooled by the 
rapid evaporation taking place upon its surface. 
Many other peculiar effects are obtained by par- 
ticular modes of administration, which will be de- 
scribed in their proper place. 



HISTORY OF WATER CURE, 



The utility of water as an agent in the treat- 
ment of disease is not a modern discovery, as the 
pretensions of some aspirants for notoriety have 
led many to believe. A very cursory glance at 
the history of various ancient nations furnishes 
sufficient evidence that the use of the bath as a 
curative agent was of very remote origin. The 
works of the oldest medical authors contain nu- 
merous references to the bath, recommendations 
of its use in cases of disease, and testimonials of 
its good effects when properly employed. As 
this is a matter of some interest to many of those 
who employ and advocate the use of water as 
a remedial agent, as well as to those who are in- 
vestigating its merits, we shall devote a little 
space to a sketch of the use and estimation of 
the bath by various nations and tribes — civilized 
and barbarous — and regular and irregular physi- 
cians, from the remote ages of antiquity down to 
modern times. For several of the facts presented 
we are indebted to a valuable work by Dr. Bell, 
long out of print and now somewhat rare. 

The Bath in Egypt. — That bathing was prac- 
ticed to a considerable extent by the Egyptians 
at a very early period, is evinced by both sacred 



50 USES OF WATER. 

and profane history. It was through obedience 
to this custom that Moses was discovered among 
the rushes by Pharaoh's daughter as she went 
down to the river side to bathe. Pictures discov- 
ered in ancient Egyptian tombs represent persons 
preparing for the bath. We have no expression 
of the estimate which was placed upon the bath 
as a remedial agent ; but it is hardly possible to 
believe that an agent held in such high esteem 
as a preventive of disease should not be valued 
as a useful remedy. 

Bathing among the Jews. — The code of laws 
prepared by Moses, under divine instruction, for 
the government of the Hebrew nation after its de- 
parture from Egypt, made bathing a prominent 
' feature. The connection of the bath with the 
treatment of leprosy would naturally lead to the 
conclusion that it was employed for its curative 
effects. 

Persian Baths. — The ancient Persians held the 
bath in such high esteem that they erected mag- 
nificent public structures devoted to bathing. 
The baths of Darius are spoken of as especially 
remarkable. 

The Bath among the Greeks. — The cold bath 
was employed among the Greeks. Lycurgus, the 
famous Spartan legislator, prescribed its daily 
use for all his subjects, not excepting the tender- 
est infants. In later times, the warm bath was 



HISTORY OF WATER CURE, 51 

introduced, and stately buildings were erected for 
the accommodation of bathers. 

The learned Greek, Hippocrates, the father of 
medical literature, and a very acute observer of 
disease and the effects of various agents upon 
the body, highly recommended the use of water 
in many diseases, describing with great care the 
proper mode of administering a simple bath. 
He laid great stress upon the careful and skillful 
use of the bath, asserting that, when improp- 
erly applied, it, " instead of doing good, may rath- 
er prove injurious." His directions for the em- 
ployment of the bath were very discreet. He 
very wisely remarks that those patients whose 
symptoms are such as would be benefited by 
bathing should be bathed, even though some of < 
the requisite conveniences may be wanting ; while 
those whose symptoms do not indicate the need 
of this remedy, should not employ it, though all 
the necessary appliances are at hand. He made 
great use of water as a beverage in treating dis- 
ease. 

Roman Baths.— The Romans excelled all oth- 
er nations in the sumptuousness of their bathing 
arrangements. Their public baths were among 
their greatest works of architecture, and were 
supplied with every convenience for increasing 
the utility and luxury of the bath. Kings and 
emperors vied with each other in perfecting and 
enlarging these sanitary institutions. Accommo- 



52 USES OF WATER. 

dations were provided, in some cases, for nearly 
20,000 bathers employing the baths simultaneous- 
ly ; and at one time the number of public baths 
in Rome was nearly one thousand. Even Nero, 
whose name has come down to us covered with 
infamy, has the credit of doing at least one good 
act in erecting a magnificent public bath, though 
even the detergent effects of such an act can 
hardly cleanse his character of the many foul 
blots by which it is rendered odious. 

Celsus and Galen, two noted Latin physicians, 
extolled the bath as an invaluable remedy, almost 
two thousand years ago. The latter pronounced 
the bath to be one of the essential features of a 
system of perfect cure which he termed apother- 
aphia, exercise and friction being the other es- 
sentials. If the regular physicians of half a cen- 
tury ago had followed the practice of Galen, as 
described in his works, they would have refreshed 
their languishing fever patients with cold water 
as a beverage instead of leaving them to be con- 
sumed by the pent-up fires which parched their 
lips, disorganized their blood, and finally ended 
their sufferings with their lives. Celsus was 
proud to boast of employing the bath more fre- 
quently and systematically than others had done 
before his time. 

The Emperor Augustus was cured, by the bath, 
of a disease which had baffled all other remedies. 



HISTOKY OF WATER CURE. 53 

Testimony of Arabian Physicians. — Although 
the Arabians are at the present day looked upon, 
and justly, as a horde of wandering wild-men, a 
thousand years ago their physicians were among 
the most learned of the age; and they were as 
sensible as learned, we judge, for they were most 
enthusiastic advocates of the efficiency of the bath. 
Rhazes, one of the most eminent of them, describes 
a plan of treating small-pox and measles which 
would scarcely be modified by the most zealous 
advocate of water treatment at the present day. 
Avicenna and Meshnes, with others, may be men- 
tioned as holding similar views. 

The bath was much used in pestilences by this 
nation, and was largely employed in Constanti- 
nople in the fifteenth century. 

Modern Bathing Customs. — Three centuries 
ago, public vapor baths were very numerous in 
Paris, being connected with barber shops, as are 
many baths in this country at the present time. 
According to Dr. Bell, Paris can still boast of a 
great number of bathing establishments. He 
states that in the baths connected with the city 
hospitals nearly 130,000 thousand baths were ad- 
ministered in a single year to out- door patients. 
Doubtless those treated in the hospitals were duly 
washed and steamed as well. This is certainly a 
very marked contrast with what we see in the 
hospitals in this country at the present day. 
Notwithstanding the advances in many other 



54 USES OF WATER. 

particulars of hospital management, the cuticles 
of patients are sadly neglected. In some of our 
largest hospitals, the filthiness of many patients 
is so great that close proximity to them is abso- 
lutely intolerable. Half a dozen of them, placed 
in a warm room, speedily impart to the air a fe- 
tor unequaled by anything but the effluvia aris- 
ing from a neglected pig-sty. Such neglect is 
inexcusable. 

The Germans of olden time were very fond of 
bathing, according to their historical records, and 
during the Middle Ages, when plagued by the lep- 
rosy, the national faith in the virtues of the bath 
was manifested by making it a religious duty. It 
is related of Charlemagne that he used to hold 
his court in a huge warm bath. Modern Teutons 
seem less partial to the bath, having transferred 
their fondness from aqua pura to lager beer. 

Although the bath was very freely used in 
England while the island was occupied by the 
Romans, who erected commodious baths like 
those in Rome, the wholesome practice is now 
sadly neglected by the English people, if we may 
credit their own writers. 

It is a curious fact that the bath seems to be 
quite generally neglected by the most civilized 
races, while it is almost universally employed by 
those less advanced nations, the Russians, Turks, 
Finlanders, and the inhabitants of Persia, Egypt, 
Barbary, and Hindostan. The Finlanders make 



HISTORY OF WATER CURE. 55 

great use of the sweating bath. To nearly every 
house is attached a small sweat-house, where they 
subject themselves to a temperature of more than 
160° F., often emerging at once into an atmos- 
phere much below freezing, with apparent impu- 
nity. The Turkish and Russian baths, similar to 
which are those in use in Egypt and India, are 
elsewhere described. 

The North American Indians employ the bath 
for many diseases. They have original and pecul- 
iar ways of administering both water and vapor 
baths. The most common bath among them is the 
vapor, followed by a plunge into a neighboring 
stream. They generate the steam by pouring 
water upon hot stones while they are inclosed in 
a small, close hut made of mud or skins. The 
native Mexicans secure a hot-air bath by confin- 
ing themselves in a brick sweat-house which is 
heated by a furnace outside. These savages seem 
to have the most implicit confidence in the effi- 
cacy of the bath, always employing it when ill, 
and with excellent success. 

Modern Medical Use of Water. — In the early 
part of the eighteenth century, a Sicilian 
named Fra Bernado acquired the title of " cold- 
water doctor " from his exclusive use of cold water 
in treating the sick. 

At the very beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, Floyer published a history of bathing which 
contains accounts of many remarkable cures ef- 



56 USES OF WATER. 

fected by means of the bath, which he recom- 
mended as a most efficient cure for numerous 
diseases. 

A Mr. Hancock, a clergyman, published, in 
1722, a tract entitled, "Common Water the Best 
Cure of Fevers." Another writer, in a work en- 
titled, " The Curiosities of Common Water," pub- 
lished in 1723, speaks of water as an "excellent 
remedy which will perform cures with very- little 
trouble, and without any charge," and " may be 
truly styled, an universal remedy." Both French 
and German writers were zealously advocating 
the use of water as a remedy for many diseases 
at this same period. Many of the French sur- 
geons had also discovered the immense utility of 
water in surgery, receiving their first lessons of 
instruction from an ignorant and superstitious 
miller, who used water in conjunction with 
charms. 

In the latter part of the last century, Drs. Jack- 
son and Currie each published reports of cases of 
fever in which they had found the use of the bath 
a remedy of remarkable efficacy. Dr. Currie ob- 
tained many followers for a time, but no very 
deep impression w T as made upon the public mind, 
though his cases were authentic, and were very 
ably reported. 

About the end of the first quarter of the pres- 
ent century, a native of Grsefenberg, Prussia, by 
the name of Priessnitz, met with an accident by 



HISTORY OF WATER CURE. 57 

which three of his ribs were broken. He treated 
himself by applications of cold water, and then 
tried the same remedy upon others in similar 
cases. His success encouraged him to make fur- 
ther experiments, and though an ignorant peas- 
ant, his natural acuteness enabled him to devise 
various means for applying water to the body, 
and to suit the application to different diseases. 
His increasing success attracted numerous pa- 
tients, and his fame became, in a few years, world- 
wide. Many of his methods were very rude, and 
his ignorance of medical science often led him in- 
to errors ; but he succeeded in restoring to health 
hundreds of patients whose maladies had been 
pronounced incurable. 

The interest in the new method became so 
great that numerous other individuals, equally ig- 
norant and possessing less shrewdness, undertook 
to imitate the German innovator. Some of them 
were successful, many of them were not ; all were 
alike m committing numerous blunders through 
ignorance of scientific medicine. But the public 
attention was called to the utility of water as a 
remedial agent so forcibly that a powerful im- 
pression was produced in its favor. From that 
time until the present, the use of water has been 
largely in the hands of unscientific empirics who 
have advocated it as a specific, and employed it 
to the exclusion of other remedies in a great de- 
gree. This course, together with many other gross 

Water. H 



USES OF WATER. 

errors connected with the practice, has deterred 
scientific physicians from employing it sufficiently 
to test its merits, only in a few exceptional in- 
stances. 

The friends of Priessnitz claimed for him a 
great discovery ; but as we have seen, he discov- 
ered nothing which was not known a century be- 
fore, if not, indeed, some thousands of years pre- 
vious. It is doing Priessnitz no injustice to say 
that he did little or nothing toward establishing 
principles, but followed, chiefly, a routine method 
of practice. 

Some scientific members of the medical profes- 
sion have investigated the subject in some de- 
gree, however, at various times, and the result 
has been that at the present day the utility of 
water is a well-recognized fact, and it is now 
often prescribed in the standard text-books as an 
excellent remedy for many diseased conditions. 
Yet, that there is still a want of appreciation of 
the remedy is fully attested by the mfrequency 
of its use by the regular profession. This neglect 
may be due in part to a prejudice which the 
members of the regular profession have acquired, 
on account of the quackery which has too often 
been connected with the use of this remedy. 
Nevertheless, there is no good reason why an effi- 
cient remedial agent should be suffered to receive 
the stigma which properly attaches only to those 
who are responsible for its abuse. 



REMEDIAL PROPERTIES, 



The value of a drug is judged by its medicinal 
properties. The more properties it has, and the 
more powerful its " action/' the more valuable it 
is considered to be. We need not here enter in- 
to a discussion of the nature of medicinal proper- 
ties, since there is no question among scientific 
physicians, that the medicinal properties — so- 
called — of drugs, or their effects upon the human 
system in diseases, are, in general, the result of 
vital resistance on the part of the system, an at- 
tempt to expel or remove the poison, or defend 
itself against it. Water also possesses remedial 
properties, some of which are due to vital resist- 
ance, while others grow out of the aid which it 
affords the vital organs by its physical properties. 
As its. value as a curative agent depends upon 
these properties, it is important to know what 
they are. 

Refrigerant — Refrigerant or antiphlogistic 
medicines are used for the purpose of diminishing 
the heat of the body. The most they can do is 
to so depress and paralyze the vital forces as to 
diminish the production of animal heat. Water, 
when applied at a proper temperature — any tem- 
perature less than 98° — not only diminishes the 
production of heat, but removes the superfluous 



60 USES OF WATEE. 

heat by conduction. There is not a drug in the 
whole materia medica that will diminish the tem- 
perature of the body so readily and so efficiently 
as water. How this is effected, has been previ- 
ously explained in considering the physiological 
effects of water. 

Sedative. — Drugs, the administration of which 
is followed by a diminished action of the heart, 
are termed sedatives. They comprise the most 
powerful poisons known. Their sedative effects 
are the result of their poisonous influence upon 
the heart or the nerve centers controlling it. 
Water is a much more efficient sedative, and its 
use is never followed by poisonous effects, as is 
the use of sedative drugs, the " action " of which 
is often very uncertain. By the cool or cold bath, 
the pulse may often be reduced twenty to forty 
beats in a few minutes. 

Tonic. — Water may be used in such a way as 
to increase the rapidity of the circulation and the 
temperature very quickly and powerfully. The 
hot bath is a most efficient stimulant, in the true 
sense of the word. It will so excite the circula- 
tion as to increase the pulse from seventy to one 
hundred and fifty in fifteen minutes. The tonic 
effects of a cool bath are well appreciated by all 
who have ever enjoyed it. 

Anodyne. — Certain drugs are called anodyne 
because they diminish nervous sensibility, thus 
relieving pain. Water applied in the form of a 



REMEDIAL PROPERTIES. 61 

hot fomentation will not infrequently give relief 
when every drug has failed. Applied in various 
other ways, it is very effectual in allaying nerv- 
ous irritability. 

Antispasmodic. — No remedy is so certainly 
successful in hysterical convulsions as water. In 
infantile convulsions, its success is also unrivaled. 
In cramp, and even in puerperal convulsions, its 
utility has been well demonstrated. 

Astringent — The value of cold water in ar- 
resting hemorrhage is well attested by all physi- 
cians. 

Laxative. — Used in various ways, water is 
very effectual in producing movement of the 
bowels, but never occasions those violent and un- 
pleasant symptoms which accompany and suc- 
ceed the use of purgatives. 

Emetic. — In the great majority of cases, no 
other emetic is needed, and no better can be 
found. 

Eliminative.— Water is a most perfect elimi- 
native. It dissolves the excrementitious and 
other foreign elements of the blood, and thus ma- 
terially aids in their elimination. Hence, it is a 
very useful diaphoretic, increasing the action of 
the skin, and is equally valuable as a diuretic, 
having the same effect upon the kidneys. 

Alterative. — For a long period, mercury has 
been considered as the champion alterative of the 
materia medica. It must yield the place to wa- 



62 USES OF WATER. 

ter, however ; for the most it can do is to destroy 
the elements of the blood, while water not only 
accelerates waste, but increases construction in 
the same proportion, according to the experi- 
ments of Prof. Liebig. 

Derivative. — -One of the most important prop- 
erties of water applications is their powerful de- 
rivative effect, No other application, internal or 
external, can equal them in efficiency and cer- 
tainty of action. 

There are very few agents which possess so 
many remedial properties as water. There are 
none which effect so much with so little expense 
to the vital powers of the patient. Many drugs 
will produce results similar to those obtained by 
the use of water, and thus accomplish good, no 
doubt ; but at the same time, they often work so 
much mischief in the system that the evil done 
is frequently much greater than the good accom- 
plished. The aim of the faithful physician should 
be to accomplish for his patient the greatest 
amount of good at the least expense of vitality ; 
and it is an indisputable fact that in a large num- 
ber of cases water is just the agent with which 
this desirable end can be obtained. 

Testimony of Eminent Physicians. — The tes- 
timonies of Currie, Jackson, and numerous 
other physicians of the last century have already 
been quoted in favor of water. There are nu- 
merous practitioners of the present day who are 



REMEDIAL PROPERTIES. 63 

equally favorable to this remedial agent. Per- 
haps we cannot do better than to quote from the 
Health Reformer the following paragraphs of an 
abstract report of a paper read before the New 
York Academy of medicine, by Prof. Austin 
Flint, M. D., president of the society, the title of 
the paper being, " The Researches of Currie, and 
Recent Views Concerning the Use of Cold 
Water ":— 

"■ Currie employed scientific methods in observ- 
ing the phenomena of disease. He was one of 
the first to employ the thermometer in studying 
disease, and his observations can be received as 
reliable. 

"The use of water externally as a means of 
reducing the temperature of the body in disease 
has recently been coming quite prominently in- 
to notice. According to Liebermeister, a noted 
German medical author, Currie was the first to 
systematize the use of water. His work was 
published in 1797. Liebermeister, in his recent 
article on typhoid fever, accords to cold water 
the first place in importance as an article for re- 
ducing the temperature. The use of water for 
this purpose is at present attracting much atten- 
tion ; and it is safe to predict that it will soon 
occupy an important place as a remedial agent. 

" Much harm has been done by the ■ rude em- 
piricism' of Priessnitz, and the various water 
cures in the country; though much good has 



64 USES OF WATER. 

also been accomplished by the latter institutions, 
and they have in a measure prepared the public 
mind for the general introduction of water as a 
remedial agent. 

" After the publication of the views of Currie 
in 1797, his method of practice, which was chief- 
ly hydropathic, became quite general, but it was 
soon nearly forgotten. Trousseau recommended 
water treatment in scarlatina, and the use of the 
remedy has continued to be recommended in the 
text-books; but as a measure of treatment in 
practice, it has become nearly obsolete. It is, 
however, obvious that unless we accept the ab- 
surd proposition that diseases have changed since 
Currie's time, the remedy which he recommend- 
ed so highly must be just as efficient now as then. 

" Dr. Currie made use of the cold douche in 
fevers, applying it vigorously to the patient while 
in the height of the fever, and continuing it until 
the temperature became decreased, as indicated 
by the thermometer and the pulse. He treated 
seven cases of continued fever by this method 
at the Liverpool Infirmary. All recovered. In 
an epidemic of typhoid fever among a regiment 
of troops, he treated fifty-eight cases, using the 
cool tepid douche in all but two cases. The lat- 
ter died. The remaining fifty- six recovered, the 
disease being greatly shortened in more than half 
the cases. 

"Dr. Currie asserted that, in small-pox, the 



REMEDIAL PROPERTIES. 65 

use of the bath afforded instant relief to the pa- 
tient, and caused the disease to assume a benig- 
nant form. 

" He found the cold bath always effectual in 
tetanus and convulsions, as also in hysteria. 

" In temporary insanity from the use of liquor, 
this acute observer found that the cold plunge 
was the most efficient remedy for the worst cases. 

" But Dr. Currie's practice was not confined to 
cold water. He observed that affusion with tep- 
id water was not only a more pleasant applica- 
tion, but that it was even more effectual in re- 
ducing unnatural heat than cold water, as it pro- 
duced no reaction, not being at all stimulating 
in character. 

" With regard to the efficacy of this agent, Dr. 
Currie stated that by its use in fevers the pulse 
would be reduced thirty or forty beats, with a 
corresponding decrease of temperature and al- 
most immediately relief of headache. 

"In his second volume, published some six 
years after his first volume, Dr. Currie declared 
that although his experience in the use of water, 
especially in fevers, had been very extensive, he 
had had only four fatal cases in which water was 
employed, and had never met with a single evi- 
dence of its being in the least degree objectiona- 
ble or injurious. Neither had he found that it 
had been thought to be objectionable by those 
whom he had treated. He details a very inter- 



66 USES OF WATER. 

esting account of his treatment of scarlatina in 
the cases of his two sons, aged, respectively, three 
and five years. He gave the older, in thirty-two 
hours, fourteen affusions, varying from cold to 
tepid. Twelve were found to be sufficient for 
the younger one. Both became convalescent in 
three days. 

" It was established by Currie that by the use 
of water the course of typhoid fever may be ab- 
breviated. This is not even claimed for the 
modern remedies in common use. 

" In referring to his own experience in the use 
of water, Dr. F. remarked, 'The relation of my 
own experience will of necessity be stated in a 
few words, as my employment of the remedy 
has heretofore been much more limited than it 
will be in the future if my life is spared/ He 
then related some very interesting cases in which 
he had employed water as the chief remedy with 
the most excellent success. He also took occa- 
sion to recommend, as one of the best means of 
applying water in fevers, the wet-sheet pack as 
employed in the various hydropathic institutions 
of the country. He had used the continued cold 
pack in a number of the worst cases of sun-stroke 
in Bellvue Hospital with marked success. This 
remedy is still employed there in this class of 
cases. 

" In a case of obstinate remittent fever, which 
was not in the least benefited by the thorough 



REMEDIAL PROPERTIES. 67 

use of quinia, he employed the cool pack thirty- 
five times in a week, continuing each application 
from ten to thirty minutes, and always with great 
relief to the patient, although he finally died [per- 
haps from the huge doses of quinine previously giv- 
en]. He expressed the opinion that if he had em- 
ployed the pack more thoroughly, making the ap- 
plications longer and more frequent, the pa/tient 
might have recovered. 

" Currie announced a true theory when he said 
that the voice of nature should not be superseded 
by theories. He advocated the free use of water 
as a beverage in febrile diseases [fever] as an im- 
portant remedial agent. Dr. F. unhesitatingly 
advanced the belief that the chief benefit derived 
from the numerous mineral waters so largely used 
was only that which was due to the properties 
of pure water. He stated as proof that it was 
not long since demonstrated by chemical analy- 
sis that the only thing peculiar about the water 
of a certain spring, famous for medicinal virtues, 
was its remarkable purity. He also suggested 
the introduction of distilled water for cooking 
and drinking purposes as a necessary sanitary 
measure. 

" Dr. F. then related a remarkable case of acute 
inflammation of the kidneys in which the patient 
exhibited the characteristic symptoms of poison- 
ing from the retention of urea. After other rem- 
dies were tried in vain, the patient's life was 



68 USES OF WATER. 

saved by the simple administration of water as a 
beverage at short intervals. The diuretic effects 
of the water soon washed away the poison and 
gave immediate relief." 

"After the conclusion of the paper, by Dr. 
Flint, the venerable Dr. Richards arose and gave 
his experience in the use of water. His ideas of 
hydropathy were obtained when he has a young 
man, from Dr. Currie's works. He adopted the 
practice of Dr. C. at that time in an epidemic of 
typhoid fever, and with such remarkable success 
as to astonish old practitioners. He stated that 
he had cured more than one hundred cases of ob- 
stinate constipation by simply directing the pa- 
tient to drink a glass of cold water half an hour 
before breakfast, each morning. In one of these 
cases the patient had not had a natural passage 
from the bowels for a number of years ; but he 
was effectually cured, by the simple remedy men- 
tioned, in the course of a few months. 

"Dr. Loyle gave an interesting resume of ten 
years' experience in the use of water, with uni- 
form success, especially in convulsions and scar- 
latina. He had employed water alone in about 
one hundred cases of acute inflammation of the 
kidneys and dropsy after scarlatina, and with 
wonderful success in every case. He had found 
it equally successful in coma, restoring conscious- 
ness when life was apparently extinct. During 
the late war, he on one occasion renovated twenty 



REMEDIAL PROPERTIES. 69 

ambulance loads of exhausted soldiers who had 
fallen on the march, by the judicious use of water. 
He recommended water most highly as an excel- 
lent diuretic and a capital regulator of the bow- 
els, far superior to ' after-dinner pills/ He com- 
mended it also as an efficient remedy for sun- 
stroke and frozen feet. 

"The sentiment of the audience — which was 
wholly composed of medical gentlemen — was 
shown by the hearty applause with which the 
remarks of each speaker were received." 

We might add much other medical testimony ; 
but as we could give no-higher authority than the 
distinguished Dr. Flint, who stands at the head 
of medical practice in America, being author of 
the standard American text- book on practical 
medicine, we will not weary the reader with fur- 
ther quotations. The German physicians, as well 
as German medical works, abound with tributes 
to the value of water. American medical jour- 
nals are full of accounts of the beneficial results 
following its use in fevers and numerous other 
diseased conditions. 

In surgery, the employment of water is rapidly 
gaining entire precedence. It has replaced nearly 
all other kinds of dressing for wounds, and its 
use has saved a valuable limb to many a poor suf- 
ferer who must otherwise have submitted to am- 
putation. 

In short, wherever it is faithfully and intelli- 



70 USES 0"F WATER. 

gently applied, water is working wonders. Yet 
it is still little used in comparison with its im- 
portance. Especially is its use neglected in 
chronic diseases. The only reason we have been 
able to discover for this neglect of a remedy, the 
merits of which are so well demonstrated and 
generally acknowledged, is that its use is more 
troublesome and laborious than the use of drugs 
A half-dozen purgative pills are administered 
much more easily than an enema. The adminis- 
tration of a diaphoretic powder is far more con- 
venient than a pack. A blister is easier to manage 
than a fomentation. But the true physician, who 
has at heart the real good of his patient, will not 
sacrifice the safety or comfort of the latter to his 
own personal convenience. 



ERRORS IN WATER CURE, 



Much of the prejudice against the use of water 
in treating disease has grown out of abuses of 
the remedy, and the putting forward of absurd 
claims by ignorant persons professing to under- 
stand its use. In order to vindicate the char- 
acter of this powerful curative agent, it is neces- 
sary to expose the errors and ignorance of those 
who have abused it. 

"Cold- Water Doctors." — In the early days of 
the modem water-cure practice, which was very 
largely introduced by Priessnitz, cold water was 
the universal remedy. No matter what the nat- 
ure of the disease, or the condition or temper- 
ament of the patient, the remedy was the same. 
At the establishment of the Grsefenberg doctor, 
ice-cold douches, precipitated from a height of six- 
teen to eighteen feet, the plunge, directly supplied 
by the cold mountain springs, and the shower 
bath of the same temperature, were all adminis- 
tered to patients with little discrimination of mod- 
ifying circumstances, in rooms un warmed by arti- 
ficial heat, even in the depths of the coldest moun- 
tain winters. As Grsefenberg was the source 
whence most water doctors of that time drew their 
knowledge, the same practice was pursued else- 



72 USES OF WATER. 

where. The unreasonableness of such a course 
was perceived by the more judicious, and thus 
its influence was prejudicial. 

Heroic Treatment.— Such treatment as that 
described in the preceding paragraph could not 
result otherwise than disastrously in numerous 
cases. The evil effects were sometimes seen at 
once, but more frequently they appeared after 
periods more or less remote. In some cases, pa- 
tients were led to drink twenty or thirty glasses 
of cold water before breakfast, under the absurd 
doctrine that the evils of a small excess would be 
cured by greater indulgence. Hundreds of per- 
sons adopted the practice of daily bathing in cold 
water in a cold room, even in the coldest weather. 
A few even went so far as to spring from their 
warm beds on the coldest mornings, run to a 
neighboring brook in a state of nudity, and 
plunge into its frigid waters through a hole in the 
ice. So infatuated were these enthusiasts, they 
really thought they enjoyed this refrigerating 
process ; but, generally, a few years' continuance 
of it was sufficient to produce such a " sedative " 
effect upon their systems that some became the 
victims of consumption and other constitutional 
diseases, while others were compelled to discon- 
tinue the practice from absolute inability to con- 
tinue it. A few of the more vigorous were ena- 
bled to survive this violent treatment without ap- 
parent injury for a long time; but those of 



ERRORS IN WATER CURE. 73 

weaker vital powers soon showed the results of 
its evil effects. 

By such processes, together with the cold sitz 
bath, the dry pack, and other harsh measures, the 
patient was sometimes brought to the very verge 
of the grave. 

Strange as it may appear, those who have been 
the strongest opponents of the use of water, 
themselves afford the best instances of its excess- 
ive use. For instance, in a case of low typhus 
fever, a " regular " physician ordered the patient, 
a young woman, to be immersed in cold water for 
half an hour. The attendants attempted to carry 
out the prescription, but in a few moments her 
symptoms became so alarming that the patient 
was removed from the bath. It will not be con- 
sidered remarkable that she died. A prominent 
New York physician, a professor of practice in 
one of the largest medical colleges in America, in 
a report of a case of remittent fever which he 
had treated with water, said that he administered 
thirty -five cold packs in a week. The patient 
died ; but the doctor thought that if he had been 
more thorough in his treatment, giving more 
packs and longer ones, he would have lived. An- 
other professor, of a rival college in the same 
city, cited, in a public lecture, a case of pneumo- 
nia which was treated hydropathically by a reg- 
ular physician of note. The patient, while very 
feeble, was placed in a cold bath. He was taken 

Water. F 



74 USES OF WATER. 

out shivering, and died an hour afterward. His 
conclusion was that water was a very hazardous 
remedy. We would certainly agree with the 
professor's conclusion if the case cited were an 
example of the proper use of water. In the pre- 
ceding case, we will not say that the packs were 
not beneficial ; but if they had been thus used 
by a professed hydropathist, the treatment would 
have been pronounced decidedly heroic by " reg- 
ulars/' 

Crisis. — By the violent processes which have 
been mentioned, the patient was frequently 
brought into a condition similar to that pro- 
duced by the old process of depletion by bleed- 
ing, antimony, mercury, and purgatives. Painful 
skin eruptions, boils, and carbuncles, often cov- 
ered the whole body. Acute pains racked the 
body of the patient from head to foot. If he 
survived this " crisis," he usually got well, which 
was regarded as an evidence of the salutary ef- 
fect of the crisis, and so it became an important 
object to be attained; and the worse a patient 
felt, the more certain and speedy, he was encour- 
aged to believe, would be his recovery. No ac- 
count was taken of the immense waste of vital 
energy during these painful morbid processes. 

The use of the abdominal bandage, continued 
for a long time until an eruption is produced, is 
another means by which some have sought to ef- 
fect a cure of their patients. This course is pur- 



ERRORS IN WATER CURE. 75 

sued under the belief that the discharge occurring 
from the surface which thus becomes diseased is 
a vicarious means of removing impurities from 
the system — an absurd notion which no one ac- 
quainted with the first principles of physiology 
and surgical pathology could entertain for a mo- 
ment. 

Hydropathic Quacks. — Unfortunately for the 
reputation of water as a remedy, its use has 
been largely in the hands of empirics who have 
used it in a routine manner, and have supposed 
it to be a cure-all, and the only remedy of any 
value. At least, such have been the claims made 
for it. This has served to bring it into disrepute, 
the disgrace which ought to attach to individuals 
being applied by an undiscriminating public to 
the innocent victim of abuse. 

Ignorance. — The greatest bane of all has been 
the ignorance of those who have professed to 
be qualified to administer water as a remedy 
understandingly. Priessnitz himself was an ig- 
norant peasant. He was innocent of either ana- 
tomical or surgical knowledge. His slight ac- 
quaintance with physiology was gathered by 
cursory observations of patients. Of the effects 
of water he knew more, studying them with a 
good degree of acuteness. His lamentable want 
of knowledge allowed him to fall into many er- 
rors. It is related of him that he treated hope- 
less cases of solid anchylosis of joints just as 



76 USES OF WATER. 

though they were mere cases of stiffness from 
rheumatism. Cases of hopeless organic disease, 
he pronounced curable and submitted to long but 
unavailing treatment, not knowing the real nat- 
ure of the disease. A young lady died of what 
he supposed an internal abscess. No abscess was 
found, upon which he remarked that "she had 
too short a neck for long life." 

It could be no wonder, then, that the disciples 
of such a master should be sadly lacking in many 
of those qualifications essential for a successful 
physician, no matter what the remedies employed. 
The most lamentable feature of the matter is that 
the same ignorance has continued to be, with few 
exceptions, characteristic of those who have em- 
ployed water as a remedy ; this has been espe- 
cially disastrous because a man with the native 
shrewdness and acuteness of perception of Priess- 
nitz has rarely appeared in the ranks of hydrop- 
athists. 

A Popular Error. — It is a grievous popular 
error that any one can apply water as skill- 
fully as the most experienced physician, and that 
its successful use requires no knowledge of the 
structure and functions of the human body. No 
doubt this has grown out of another error, per- 
haps quite as common ; viz., that water is so sim- 
ple a remedy that it will do no harm if it does no 
good. Such notions have frequently led to most 
disastrous results. Water, as already shown, is one 



ERRORS IN WATER CURE. 77 

of the most powerful remedies. And while it is, 
undoubtedly, far safer in the hands of the uned- 
ucated than blisters, purgatives, diuretics, and 
such agents as opium, chloral, alcohol, and most 
other drugs, yet it certainly requires careful us- 
age, and the more scientific knowledge the user 
possesses, the more skillfully will he be able to 
apply it. It is, furthermore, true that a great 
majority of ordinary diseases are commonly so 
void of danger under careful nursing and hygi- 
enic management that the application of water is 
a simple matter which any intelligent mother can 
perform successfully. A case is related by good 
authority of a person who fell in apoplexy an 
hour after taking an excessively hot bath. An- 
other patient became a paralytic from the same 
cause. Water is a remedy which cannot be safely 
used by one who has not informed himself of its 
effects, and of the proper modes of application. 

Absurd Claims. — Sensible people have been 
rightfully disgusted with the claims which have 
been made by certain pretentious ones for the use 
of water. One declares that the bath will dissolve 
out of the body mineral substances which have 
been taken into it. Another claims to have been 
able, by the application of fomentations to a 
rheumatic knee, to extract in regular order the 
ointments which had previously been successively 
applied. Numerous other claims equally prepos- 
terous might be related, if it were necessary. 



78 USES OF WATER. 

They have all tended to excite a feeling of con- 
tempt fox* a means of treating disease which is 
really worthy of the highest estimation. 

Neglect of Other Remedies. — As has been pre- 
viously remarked, many seem to have forgotten 
that water is not the only remedy for disease, and 
not only attempt to cure every disease by its ap- 
plication, but use it to the exclusion of all other 
remedies. In nearly all cases, sunlight, pure air, 
rest, exercise, proper food, and other hygienic 
agencies are quite as important as water. Elec- 
tricity, too, is a remedy which should not be ig- 
nored; and skillful surgery is absolutely indis- 
pensable in not a small number of cases. Even 
drugs are sometimes useful auxiliaries, though, 
doubtless, infinitely more harm has resulted from 
the employment of drugs in conjunction with 
water treatment than from their omission. 

Rational Hydropathy leaves room for every 
other remedy of value. It does not regard water 
as a specific nor as a panacea, but only as one of 
the most valuable of numerous excellent reme- 
dies. It discards the erroneous and harmful 
practices of empirics and ignorant charlatans, 
whether they concern water or other agents, and 
gives to the aqueous element only its due share 
of importance. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER, 



The indications which are to be met in the 
treatment of disease are chiefly those enumerated 
below ; and how admirably they are met by ap- 
plications of water may be easily demonstrated 
by following the directions given. 

1. Equalization of Circulation. — Disease can- 
not exist without some disturbance of the cir- 
culation. In perfect health each part receives 
its due share of blood. One of the first in- 
dications in disease, then, is to balance the cir- 
culation. If an organ contains too much blood, 
the application of cold water to the part will oc- 
casion contraction of the minute vessels of the 
part, and thus the amount of blood is lessened, as 
explained more at length in considering the phys- 
iological effects of water. 

Or, the part may be relieved by the applica- 
tion of warm water in some form to adjacent or 
remote parts of the body, by which means the 
surplus blood will be drawn to other parts, thus 
relieving the suffering organ. Again, if an organ 
contains too little blood, the opposite course 
must be pursued. Warm or hot applications are 
made to the part, while cold applications may be 
made to other parts if necessary. Very often the 






80 USES OF WATER. 

two remedies may be advantageously combined, 
since one part cannot contain too much blood 
without some other part or parts being deprived 
of the due proportion, and vice versa; so that 
while a cold application is needed at one part, 
the opposite is required at another. 

2. Regulation of Temperature.— As the con- 
dition of the bodily temperature is closely asso- 
ciated with that of the circulation, the two are 
usually controlled by the same remedies applied 
in the same manner. A part which contains too 
much blood has usually, also, too high a degree of 
heat. The cold application relieves both. If the 
entire surface of the body is involved, the appli- 
cation must be as extensive as necessary to affect 
the whole. In general fevers, the admirable 
adaptation of water to this end is well exhibited. 
When the temperature of the body rises above 
100°, or even above 98°, a cooling bath should be 
resorted to. It may consist of a simple sponging 
with water, scarcely below the bodily tempera- 
ture, an affusion with tepid water, a full bath of 
a tepid, temperate, or cold temperature, or some 
other form of cooling application according to 
the degree of cooling effect desired. Any tem- 
perature below 98° will be cooling. In general, 
it is better to employ a bath only a few degrees 
below the bodily temperature, as its application 
will not be followed by an increase of heat, called 
reaction, which follows a brief application of 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 81 

a cool bath. To obtain the proper cooling effects 
of a cool or cold bath, it must be continued for 
some time, from ten minutes to half an hour, at 
least. The same remark applies also to the ap- 
plication of cool baths for the purpose of equal- 
izing the circulation. 

3. Removal of Pain. — Pain is usually depend- 
ent upon disturbance of the circulation, being 
caused by the pressure of overfilled vessels upon 
the nerves in a confined space. Pain may be 
relieved by either hot or cold applications. The 
first object should be to remove the surplus blood, 
by local cold applications, and remote hot ones. If 
this plan is not successful, relief will be obtained 
by a hot local application, which operates by re- 
laxing the surrounding tissues, so that the nerve 
fibers are relieved from pressure, as well as by 
quickening the local circulation, and so relieving 
congestion. The latter method is usually most 
quickly successful ; but it is not so radically cu- 
rative as the former. Pain dependent on passive 
congestion will be best relieved by the method 
next described. 

4. To Excite Activity. — Many organs often 
become torpid or inactive, as the skin and 
liver, especially. Sometimes the blood-vessels of 
an organ become relaxed and inactive, passive 
congestion resulting. No remedy will so readily 
induce a return of activity to the affected parts 



82 USES OF WATER. 

as alternate hot and cold applications, continued 
for some minutes, fifteen to thirty or more. This 
is one of the best applications for the relief of 
old pains. 

5. Removal of Obstructions. — A very large 
class of diseases are attributable to obstruction in 
various organs, caused by the reception of foreign 
matters into the system, and the accumulation of 
the natural waste of the tissues. The warm 
bath, to remove external obstructions, and the in- 
ternal use of water as a solvent for internal 
sources of obstruction, are the remedies which 
will achieve success in nearly all cases. Offend- 
ing substances in the stomach are readily removed 
by the water emetic; and hardened accumula-, 
tions in the large intestine are removed with 
equal facility by means of the enema. 

6. Dilution of the Blood. — In fevers, chol- 
era, and other diseases, the blood often becomes 
abnormally thickened, dark, and viscid, circu- 
lating with difficulty, and not imparting due 
nourishment to the tissues. Nothing but water 
can remedy this difficulty. It may be got into 
the blood by absorption from the skin, if the mu- 
cous membrane of the stomach will not absorb it. 

7. Influence on the Nervous System. — Finally, 
it is often important to affect certain organs 
through their nervous centers. Water, prop- 
erly applied, will accomplish this also. A fo- 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 83 

mentation applied to the abdomen will often re- 
move headache, and is an excellent remedy for 
general nervousness, seeming to affect the whole 
system, just as does galvanic electricity when ap- 
plied to the same locality, doubtless through the 
large nervous ganglia located in that region. 

Some physicians claim to have obtained pecul- 
iar results by the application of heat or cold to 
the spine. It is said, for example, that cold ap- 
plied to any portion of the spine will produce an 
increased circulation in the portion of the body 
supplied with organic nerves from the part. Hot 
applications to the spine are said to produce a con- 
trary effect upon corresponding organs. Perhaps 
there should be still further observations upon this 
subject before any attempt is made to establish 
a definite law. It is well known that applications 
of ice to the spine is an excellent remedy for 
chorea, and several other nervous diseases. 

For general nervous irritability, or nervous- 
ness, the warm full bath may be applied with 
uniform success. Neither hot nor cold applica- 
tions are generally useful in such cases. 

Temperature of Baths. — The thermometer is 
the only accurate measure of temperature ; hence 
the importance of its use in the administration of 
baths. Yet the thermometer may be abused. A 
given temperature may seem warm to one indi- 
vidual and tepid or cool to another. The same 
difference of sensation will occur in the same in- 



84 USES OF WATER. 

dividual on different occasions. What seems cool 
to-day will be thought warm to-morrow. The 
susceptibility of the body to sensations of heat 
and cold largely depends upon its condition and 
the temperature of surrounding objects. In con- 
sequence of this physiological fact, it is improper 
to attempt, as some have done, to fix certain exact 
temperatures at which baths must be given to all 
persons under all conditions. 

For convenience and perspicuity, the tempera- 
tures of baths have been divided into six grades^ 
as given in the following table by Forbes; all 
who attempt to use the bath according to the di- 
rections should carefully learn and preserve the 
distinctions here made : — 

1. Cold Bath, . . . . 33° to 60° F. 

2. Cool, 60° " 75° 

3. Temperate, . . . . 75° " 85 9 

4. Tepid, .... 85° u 92° 

5. Warm, . . ., . . 92° " 98° 

6. Hot, 98° "112° 

The vapor bath ranges from 98° to 120°; the 
hot-air or Turkish bath from 100° to 160°, or 
even higher, though not usefully so. 

A bath of any temperature above the natural 
heat of the body, 98°, is a hot bath. At 32°, 
water becomes ice ; a bath is very rarely given at 
this temperature, and then the application should 
be made to only a small surface. Water at 32°, 
and even ice and snow, may be usefully employed 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 85 

as topical remedies in local diseases. It will rarely 
be necessary to employ a full bath at a lower 
temperature than 65°, which will usually seem 
very cold to the patient. A temperature from 
85° to 95° is the most generally useful for baths 
which involve a considerable portion of the body, 
though of course higher temperatures are em- 
ployed in local applications. 

How to Determine the Temperature of a Bath 
without a Thermometer. — It is often necessary 
to administer a bath when a thermometer can- 
not be obtained. In such cases it is custom- 
ary to test the temperature by placing the hand 
in the water. This is an unreliable method, 
however ; for the hand becomes, by usage, so 
obtuse to heat that water which would seem 
only warm to it would be painfully hot to the 
body of the patient. To avoid this source of 
error, it is only necessary to plunge the arm to 
the elbow into the water, by which means its 
real temperature will be determined. Water 
which causes redness of the skin is hot ; when it 
feels simply comfortable, with no special sensation 
of either heat or cold, it is warm. Slightly cooler 
than this, it is tepid. When it causes the appear- 
ance of goose-flesh, it may be for practical pur- 
poses called cool, a still lower degree being cold. 

Another Method. — The method about to be de- 
scribed is somewhat more accurate than the pre- 
ceding, and may be found convenient for facilitat- 



86 



USES OF WATEK. 



ing the preparation of a bath of proper quantity 
as well as temperature, a matter which though 
simple enough is often quite annoying to inex- 
perienced persons. It is a fact of common knowl- 
edge that water boils at 212° F. Boiling water, 
then, is always of this temperature. Well and 
spring water, and the water of cisterns in winter, 
does not vary greatly from 53°. The temperature 
of well and spring water changes very slightly with 
the seasons. By combining in proper quantities 
water of these known temperatures, any required 
temperature may be produced. Not having seen 
this method suggested before, we have prepared 
the following table, which may perhaps be used 
to advantage in the absence of a thermometer ; 
we advise all to obtain and use a thermometer, 
however, when it is possible to do so : — 



Tern. 53°. 



Tern. 212°. 



2 qts. added to 1 qt. equals 3 qts. at 106° 



3 
4 
5 

6 



3* 


a 


98 3 


4 


tc 


93° 


5 


a 


85° 


6 


a 


80° 


7 


tt 


76° 


9 


iC 


71° 



When larger quantities are needed, it is only nec- 
essary to multiply each of the combining quanti- 
ties by the same number. For instance, if a gal- 
lon and a half of water is needed for a foot bath 
at 106°, pour into a pail or bath-tub four quarts 
of fresh well water and then add two quarts of 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 87 

boiling water. If four gallons of water are 
wanted for a sitz bath at 93° (a very common 
temperature), pour into the bath-tub three gallons 
of fresh well or spring water, and add one gallon 
of boiling water. Thus any required quantity can 
be obtained at the temperatures given. The cold 
water should be placed in the vessel first, and 
there should be no delay in adding the hot water, 
as it would rapidly lose its heat, and thus make 
a larger quantity necessary. Determinate meas- 
urement is not essential. The cold and hot water 
may be added alternately in proper proportions, 
being measured by the same vessel until the req- 
uisite quantity is prepared. 

RULES FOR BATHING, 

The following general rules should be carefully 
studied and throughly understood by any one who 
expects to employ the bath. Much injury to 
health and most of the discredit cast upon the 
use of water as a remedy have arisen from a 
disregard of some of them : — 

1. A full bath should never be taken within 
two or three hours after a meal. 

2. Such local baths as fomentations, compresses, 
foot baths, and even sitz baths, may be taken an 
hour or two after a meal ; indeed, compresses and 
fomentations may be applied almost immediately 
after a light meal, without injury. 

3. Employ the thermometer to determine the 



88 USES OF WATER. 

temperature of every bath when possible to do so ; 
if not, employ the other methods described. 

4. The temperature of the room during a bath 
should be 70° to 85°. Invalids require a warmer 
room than persons in health. Thorough ventila- 
tion is an important matter ; but draughts must 
be carefully prevented, by screens of netting 
placed before openings into the room when nec- 
essary. 

5. Never apply either very cold or excessively 
hot treatment to aged or feeble patients. Cold is 
especially dangerous. 

6. Hot baths are rarely useful in health. The 
warm bath answers all the requirements of clean- 
liness. 

7. Never take a cold bath when exhausted or 
chilly. A German emperor lost his life by tak- . 
ing a cool bath after a fatiguing march. Alex- 
ander came near losing his life in the same man- 
ner. Many have been rendered cripples for life 
by so doing. No harm will result from a cool 
bath if the body is simply warm, even though it 
may be in a state of perspiration. Contrary to the 
common opinion, a considerable degree of heat is 
the best possible preparation for a cold bath. 
The Finlanders rush out of their hot ovens — 
sweat-houses — and roll in the snow, without in- 
jury- 

8. Cold baths should not be administered dur- 
ing the period of menstruation in females. At 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 89 

such times, little bathing of any kind is advisable 
with the exception of a warm or tepid sponge 
bath, or such treatment as may be advised by a 
physician. 

9. Bath attendants should carefully avoid giv- 
ing " shocks " to nervous people or to those in- 
clined to apoplexy or affected with heart disease. 
Shocks are unpleasant and unnecessary for any 
one. 

10. Never apply to the head such treatment as 
will cause shock, as the sudden cold douche, 
shower, or spray bath. 

11. A light hand bath every morning will be 
none too frequent to preserve scrupulous bodily 
cleanliness. More than a week should never be 
allowed to elapse without a bath with warm 
water and soap. 

12. The best time for treatment — especially 
cool treatment — is about three hours after break- 
fast. 

13. Always employ for bathing purposes the 
purest water attainable. Soft water is greatly 
preferable to hard on many accounts. 

14. Those not strong and vigorous should avoid 
drinking freely of cold water just previous to a 
bath. 

15. The head should always be wet before any 
bath ; and the feet should be warmed- — if not al- 
ready warm — by a hot foot bath, if necessary. 

16. In applying a bath to sick persons, it 

Water. G 



90 USES OF WATER. 

should always be made of a temperature agree- 
able to the feelings, 

17. One very important element in the success 
of a bath is the dexterity of the attendant. The 
patient should be inspired with confidence both 
in the bath and in the skill of the attendant. The 
mind has much to do with the effect of a bath. 

18. In general baths, the patient, unless feeble, 
will derive benefit by assisting himself as much 
as possible. 

19. Patients should receive due attention dur- 
ing a bath, so that they may not feel that they 
are forgotten. Nervous patients often become very 
apprehensive on this account. It is also import- 
ant, in most cases, that a reasonable degree of 
quietude should be maintained. 

20. When any unusual or unexpected symp- 
toms appear during a bath, the patient should be 
removed at once. 

21. In case symptoms of faintness appear, as is 
sometimes the case in feeble patients, during a 
hot bath, apply cold water to the head and face, 
give cool water to drink, lower the temperature 
of the bath by adding cool water, and place the 
patient as nearly as possible in a horizontal po- 
sition. 

22. The temperature of a warm or hot bath 
should always be decreased just before its termi- 
nation as a precaution against taking cold. 

23. In health, a cool or cold bath should be 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 91 

very brief, lasting not more than one or two min- 
utes. A tepid bath should last not more than 
ten or fifteen minutes. A warm bath may be con- 
tinued thirty or forty minutes, or even longer, 
but nothing could be more absurd than the cus- 
tom prevailing in some places of prolonging the 
bath to great length. At Pfeffers and Leuck, in 
Switzerland, many persons spend the whole day 
in the water, taking their meals on floating tables, 
and occupying their time in reading, playing 
chess, and other games. Some remain in the wa- 
ter as many as sixteen hours out of the twenty- 
four. Of course, certain baths may be advanta- 
geously prolonged in cases of disease; but no 
intelligent physician will now recommend the 
antiquated practice which we sometimes see rep- 
resented by a patient seated in a tub, with an 
open book in hand. 

24. It is of extreme importance that the pa- 
tient should be carefully dried after any bath. 
A large sheet is much better for this purpose 
than a towel. An old linen or cotton sheet is 
preferable to a new one, being softer. Full di- 
rections are given under the heading, " Dry Rub- 
bing-Sheet/' 

25. A patient should never be left chilly after 
a bath. Rub until warm. 

26. It is equally important that the body 
should not be left in a state of perspiration, for it 
will soon become chilly. 



92 USES OF WATER. 

27. Patients who are able to do so should ex- 
ercise a little both before and immediately after 
a bath to insure thorough reaction. 

28. An hour s rest soon after a bath will add 
to its beneficial effects. It is best to go to bed 
and cover warm. 

29. If a bath is followed by headache and fe- 
ver, there has been something wrong, either in 
the kind of bath administered, or in the manner 
of giving it. 

30. Very cold and very hot baths are seldom 
required. The barbarous practices of half a cen- 
tury ago are now obsolete, or should be, if they 
are not quite discontinued as yet. No good re- 
sulted from them which cannot be attained by 

• milder means, and much harm was occasioned 
which is avoided by the use of less extreme tem- 
peratures. 

31. Patients should not be allowed to become 
dependent on any special form of bath, as an aft- 
er-dinner fomentation to aid digestion, the ab- 
dominal bandage, or any other appliance. De- 
stroy such a habit if it has been formed. 

32. Order, cleanliness, dispatch, and a delicate 
sense of propriety are items which every bath at- 
tendant should keep constantly in mind, and 
which will often contribute in no small degree 
to success in the use of this agent. 

33. Never employ a bath without a definite 
and legitimate purpose in view. It is somewhat 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 93 

customary, in many institutions where water is 
employed, to apply it in a routine way. Many 
baths are prescribed for the sake of producing 
variety, or pleasing the patient. A faithful and 
scientific physician will carefully adapt his reme- 
dies to the condition of his patient, and will ob- 
serve the results. It seems to be a prevalent er- 
ror that it makes little difference how water is 
applied, provided the patient is only wet. Warm, 
hot, tepid, temperate, cool, and cold baths are 
used indiscriminately. 

So, also, the different modes of administering 
baths of the same temperature are disregarded in 
many cases. In general, each particular form of 
bath is especially adapted to the treatment of spe- 
cial conditions, and it is the best test of the pro- 
ficiency of a physician, in the use of water, to ob- 
serve whether he recognizes the distinctions be- 
tween the various kinds of baths, and is able to 
adapt them to the appropriate conditions. 

34 Giving too much treatment is likely to be 
the error into which the inexperienced will fall, 
rather than the opposite extreme. Nature can- 
not be forced to do more than she is capable of 
doing ; and as nature must do the healing, if a 
cure is accomplished, remedies should be of a 
helping rather than a crowding or forcing nature. 
The vitality of patients may be expended use- 
lessly by treatment, for baths excite vital resist- 
since, as well as drugs, a fact which many over- 



94 USES OF WATER. 

look. The dangers of over-treatment are not so 
great as some imagine, however, who take the 
opposite extreme, and advocate rest as the great 
cure-all. We have seen patients who seemed to 
be quite monomaniacs on the subject of " rest 
cure," who needed a good thorough stirring up 
with useful exercise more than any other kind of 
treatment. 

GENERAL BATHS, 

Baths applied to the whole surface of the body- 
are, as we have already seen, among the most 
powerful means of affecting the human system 
either in health or disease. Baths of a tempera- 
ture less than that of the body, 98°, unless of 
very brief application, uniformly decrease the 
bodily temperature. That the diminution of 
temperature is not merely local, being confined 
to the skin and superficial structures, is shown 
by the fact that the thermometer indicates a de- 
cline of temperature in the interior of the body 
as well. The bath diminishes the production of 
heat throughout the whole system, besides ab- 
stracting large quantities by its contact with the 
body, as previously explained. The diminution 
of temperature continues for hours after the bath, 
especially in cases in which it was excessively 
high at the time of administration. Hot baths 
have, in general, an opposite effect. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 95 

SWIMMING. 

Swimming is a general bath combined with 
vigorous exercise, as nearly all baths should be. 
It is one of the most healthful kinds of exercise, 
if not continued too long, as it frequently is. The 
temperature of the water is commonly between 
70° and 80° F., which make it a temperate bath. 
Its effects are not far different from other forms 
of bath of the same temperature. We have not 
space to devote to a description of the art, since 
there are valuable treatises on the subject. 

PLUNGE BATH. 

The hot baths of the ancient Greeks and Ro- 
mans were usually followed by a plunge up to 
the neck in a large basin of water four or five 
feet deep, and large enough to allow the exercise 
of swimming. Many hydropathic establishments 
employ the same bath after packs and sweating 
baths. A bath of this kind is not always at- 
tainable without great expense ; and it possesses 
no particular advantage over other methods of 
cooling the surface after a warm bath. It is a 
very severe form of bath when employed at a 
low temperature. In the days of Priessnitz, it 
was used at a temperature of 45° or 50°. More 
harm than good would result from a continuous 
employment of such treatment. The cool plunge 
should be of but a very few minutes' duration, 
and the patient should rub himself vigorously dur- 



96 USES OF WATER. 

ing the bath. In this, as in all other cool baths, 
the first contact with the water produces chilli- 
ness or shock. After two or three minutes, or 
less, this will be followed by a partial reaction, 
even while the patient is in the water, accompa- 
nied by a feeling of comfortable warmth. This 
will shortly be again succeeded by a second chill, 
which is not so likely to be followed by prompt 
reaction ; hence, the patient should always take 
care to leave the bath before the occurrence of 
the second chill, if he would avoid unpleasant 
after-effects. 

SPONGE BATH. 

The sponge or hand bath is perhaps the simplest 
and most useful mode of applying water to the 
surface of the body ■ for it requires the use of no 
appliances which every one does not possess, and 
it can be employed by any one without elaborate 
preparation, and under almost any circumstances. 
A great quantity of water is not required ; a few 
quarts are a plenty, and a pint will answer ad- 
mirably in an emergency. A soft sponge, or a 
linen or cotton cloth, and one or two soft towels, 
or a sheet, are the other requisites. The hand 
may be used in the absence of a cloth or a 
sponge for applying the water. 

The temperature of the bath should not be 
above 95°, and 90° is generally better. Most 
people can habitually employ a temperature of 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 97 

75° or 80° without injury. The use of a much 
lower temperature is not commonly advisable, 
and is often productive of great injury. 

Begin the bath, as usual, by wetting the head, 
saturating the hair well. Wash the face, then 
the neck, chest, shoulders, arms, trunk, and back. 
Rub vigorously until the skin is red, to prevent 
chilling ; for even when the temperature of the 
room is nearly equal to that of the body, the 
rapid evaporation of water from the surface will 
lower the external temperature very rapidly un- 
less a vigorous circulation is maintained. 

After thoroughly bathing the upper portion of 
the body, turn the attention to the lower portion, 
continuing the rubbing of the upper parts at 
brief intervals to prevent chilliness. As soon as 
the bathing is concluded, envelop the body in a 
sheet and rub dry, or dry the skin with a towel. 
When the surface is nearly or quite dried, rub 
the whole vigorously with the bare hand. 

The bath should not be prolonged more than 
ten or fifteen minutes. Five minutes is sufficient 
to secure all the benefits of the bath, and even 
three minutes will suffice for a very good bath. 

Persons who chill easily will find it better to 
bathe only a portion of the body before drying 
it. Some will even find it necessary to retain a 
portion of the clothing upon the lower part of 
the body while bathing and drying the upper 
part. 



98 USES OF WATER. 

Weakly patients may receive this bath with 
very little disturbance, even in bed. Only a 
small portion of the body should be uncovered 
at a time, being bathed, dried, rubbed, and then 
covered while another part is treated in a simi- 
ilar manner. 

The sponge bath may be administered any- 
where without danger of soiling the finest carpet, 
by using care to make the sponge or cloth nearly 
dry before applying it to the body. A rug may 
be spread upon the floor as an extra precaution. 
When used for cleanliness — as it should be daily 
— a little fine soap should be added two or three 
times a week, to remove the oleaginous secretion 
from the skin. 

This bath is applicable whenever there is an 
abnormal degree of bodily heat, and in such cases 
may be applied every half-hour without injury. 
It is useful in cases of nervousness and sleepless- 
ness, and, in fact, whenever water is required in 
any form, it may be used with advantage. 

KUBBING WET-SHEET. 

This bath is administered in two ways ; with 
the sheet very wet, or dripping, and with it 
wrung nearly dry. The first method is frequent- 
ly called the dripping-sheet bath. In giving it, 
proceed as follows : — 

When necessary to prevent injury to the floor 
or carpet, place upon the floor a large rug or oil- 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 99 

cloth. In the center, place a large wash-tub, in 
the absence of a more convenient vessel. While 
the patient is making himself ready for the bath, 
procure two large cotton sheets. Gather one end 
of each into folds so that it can be easily and 
quickly spread out ; lay one upon a chair close at 
hand, and place the other in the tub. At a dis- 
tance of three or four feet from the tub, place a 
low stool. Now place in the tub — if a bath at 
about 93° is desired, and this will be the most 
usual temperature — half a pailful of fresh well or 
spring water, and one-third as much boiling wa- 
ter. If a thermometer is at hand it should, of 
course, be used to test the temperature. After 
the patient has wet his head, let him step into 
the tub, facing the assistant, with his arms 
straight and pressed closely to his sides. Now 
draw up the wet sheet by its gathered end to its 
full length ; draw out one side quickly, place the 
corner over one shoulder of the patient, and while 
holding it in place with one hand, quickly draw 
the remainder of the sheet around him with the 
other, bringing it up well around the neck, and 
folding the second corner under the top so as to 
hold it in place. But a few seconds should be 
occupied in applying the sheet. Then commence 
rubbing the patient vigorously with both hands, 
one upon each side, rubbing to and fro three or 
four times in each place, passing over the whole 
body very rapidly, and then repeating the same ? 



100 USES OF WATER. 

to prevent chilling of any part. Coarse, robust, 
and phlegmatic people may be rubbed with a 
good deal of severity ; but persons with delicate 
skin and acute sensibilities require gentler manip- 
ulation. 

After three or four minutes of energetic rubbing, 
pour over the chest and shoulders a pailful of 
water four or five degrees cooler than that of the 
bath, which should be in readiness for instant use. 
Then rub two or three minutes longer. Now 
quickly disengage the wet sheet, allowing it to 
drop into the tub. While the patient is stepping 
upon the stool, quickly grasp the dry sheet, and 
by the time he is in place, have him enveloped 
in it. Rub him dry, passing over the whole body 
several times in rapid succession, to prevent chill- 
ing. Care must be taken that every part is thor- 
oughly dried. The head, armpits, groins, and 
feet are liable to escape attention. No moisture 
should be left between the toes. After wiping 
nearly or quite dry, apply the hand-rubbing, as 
elsewhere described, using care not to induce 
perspiration by too vigorous or long- continued 
rubbing. If the skin should become moist from 
perspiration after having been once dried, grad- 
ually lower the temperature of the room and con- 
tinue light rubbing until the skin becomes dry 
and cool before allowing the patient to dress. 

Very few baths afford a better opportunity 
for the display of skill and energy on the part of 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 101 

the attendant than this. Some practice is required 
to enable one to give it really well. 

The other form of rubbing wet-sheet is given 
in about the same manner, the only difference 
being that the sheet is wrung before its applica- 
tion, and is re-applied one or more times, accord- 
ing as a milder or more severe form of treatment 
is required. The douche may be reserved until 
the sheet is removed the last time. 

One precaution especially necessary to be ob- 
served in this bath, as well as in all others where 
a tepid application is succeeded by a cooler one, 
is frequently overlooked. The second cooler ap- 
plication should never be made until there is 
good reaction from the first. 

This is an excellent bath to apply after packs 
or warm baths which have induced perspiration, 
as hot-air and vapor baths. It is especially ap- 
plicable to cases in which there is defective cir- 
culation in the extremities, torpid skin and liver, 
and nervousness. It is of special benefit in cases 
of debility accompanied by night sweats. 

WET-SHEET PACK. 

When properly administered, this is one of the 
most powerful of all water appliances. Some 
skill is needed to apply it with a uniform degree 
of success. Two or three comfortables or thick 
blankets, one woolen blanket, and a large linen 
or cotton sheet are the articles necessary. It is 



102 USES OF WATER. 

important to be certain that the sheet is sufficient- 
ly large to extend twice around the patient's 
body. More blankets are required in cool weath- 
er and by weak patients. Spread upon a bed or 
straight lounge the comfortables, one by one, 
making them even at the top. Over them, spread 
the woolen blanket, allowing its upper edge to 
fall an inch or two below that of the last comfort- 
able. Wet the sheet in water of the proper tem- 
perature, having gathered the ends so that it can 
be quickly spread out. Wring so that it will not 
drip much, place its upper end even with the 
woolen blanket, and spread it out on each side of 
the middle sufficiently to allow the patient to lie 
down upon his back, which he should quickly do, 
letting his ears come just above the upper border 
of the sheet, and extending his limbs near to- 
gether. The patient should then raise his arms, 
while the attendant draws over one side of the 
wet sheet, taking care to bring it in contact 
with as much of the body as possible, bringing it 
closely up beneath the arms, and pressing it down 
between the limbs so as to make it come in con- 
tact with both sides of them. Tuck the edge 
tightly under the patient on the opposite side, 
using care not to include the other edge of the 
sheet. Now let the patient clasp his hands 
across his chest, and then bring up the other side 
of the sheet. Grasp it by its upper corner with 
one hand, drawing it down over the shoulder and 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 103 

lengthwise of the body; then place the other 
hand upon the covered shoulder, holding the 
sheet firmly in place while the corner is carried 
upward upon the opposite side and tucked under 
the shoulder, thus drawing the upper edge of 
the sheet well up under the chin. Tuck the edge 
of the sheet under the body, carefully enveloping 
the feet. Then bring over each side of the blank- 
et and comfortables in the manner last described, 
being very careful to exclude all air at the neck, 
and allowing the blankets to extend below the 
feet so that they can be folded under. 

It is not desirable that the patient should be 
bound as tightly as a mummy. All that is nec- 
essary is the exclusion of air, and as the neck 
and feet are the points at which it is most likely 
to enter, these parts should receive particular at- 
tention, as directed. If too tightly bound, the 
patient will be more likely to be nervous than if 
allowed some freedom. The application of the 
wet sheet should be made in a few seconds, as it 
cools very rapidly when spread out. The first 
blanket should be brought over the patient as 
soon as possible. If the feet are not warm, a hot 
foot bath should be taken before the pack. If 
they become cool in the pack, hot jugs, bricks, or 
stones should be applied to them. If the patient 
does not become comfortably warm in a few min- 
utes — ten or fifteen at most — more blankets 
should be added, and, if necessary, dry heat should 



104 USES OF WATER. 

be applied to the sides. If he still remains chil- 
ly, he should be promptly removed and placed 
in a warm bath, or vigorously rubbed with a dry 
sheet and then placed in a dry pack. The head 
should ba kept cool by frequent wetting while 
the patient is in the bath. If a compress is ap- 
plied, it should be often renewed. 

The temperature of the pack must depend upon 
the condition of the patient, being determined by 
principles elsewhere explained. A woolen sheet 
is better for the administration of a hot pack 
than one of cotton or linen. The cold pack is 
very rarely required. The usual temperature 
for this bath should be about 92°. It is proper 
to wet the sheet in water of about 100°, as it 
will be cooled several degrees while being applied. 

The duration of the pack should be carefully 
regulated by the condition of the patient, the ef- 
fects desired, and the immediate effects produced. 
If the patient becomes very nervous, or sweats 
excessively, or becomes faint, or has other serious- 
ly unpleasant or dangerous symptoms, he should 
be removed from the pack at once if he has not 
been more than ten minutes in it. Ordinarily, 
the pack may continue thirty to forty-five min- 
utes. If the patient sleeps naturally, he may 
remain in the pack a full hour if strong, or even 
longer in many cases. In fevers, short packs, 
frequently repeated, are more beneficial than long 
ones fewer in number. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 105 

The pack should be followed by the spray, the 
sponge bath, the douche, or the rubbing wet-sheet. 
It is a powerful remedy, and should not be used 
to excess in chronic diseases ; it has been much 
abused in this way. Its depurating effects are 
really wonderful. The increased action of the 
skin, together with determination of blood to 
that part, is so great that poisons long hidden in 
the system are brought out and eliminated. The 
odor of a sheet recently used in packing a "gross 
person is often intolerable. If the patient be a 
tobacco-user, the sheet will be reeking with ;the 
odor of nicotine. Many times, the sheet will be 
actually discolored with the impurities withdrawn 
from the body. 

The applications of the pack in treating dis- 
ease are very numerous. In almost all acute dis- 
eases accompanied by general febrile disturbance, 
and in nearly all chronic diseases, it is a most 
helpful remedy if rightly managed. It is^an ad- 
mirable remedy for nervousness, skin diseases, 
and irritations of the mucous membrane. The 
warm pack is a remedy worth more in the treat- 
ment of children's diseases than all the drugs in 
the materia medica, as many physicians j have 
proved. It is a most successful application in 
convulsions. 

SHOWER PACK. 

In many cases of fever in which the tempera- 
ture rises so high as to produce delirium, the or- 

Water. H 



106 USES OF WATER. 

dinary pack does not seem to be sufficiently 
powerful to fully control the excessive heat. In 
such cases, the shower pack is found of great serv- 
ice ; it is thus used in Bellevue Hospital, New 
York:— 

A rubber blanket is placed upon an ordinary 
mattress. Upon this, the patient is placed, envel- 
oped in a wet sheet, as in the ordinary pack. In- 
stead of being covered with blankets, however, 
he is left exposed to the air, so that the powerful 
cooling effects of evaporation may be obtained. 
As the sheet becomes warmed by the heat of the 
body, cool water is showered upon it from a 
sprinkler or watering-pot. The bath is contin- 
ued thus until the temperature of the patient, as 
indicated by the thermometer, is sufficiently di- 
minished. 

This bath, combining as it does the cooling ef- 
fects of cool water and of evaporation, is the most 
powerful refrigerant that can be employed ; yet 
it is perfectly safe when judiciously used, being 
only applied in cases of extreme urgency on ac- 
count of the high temperature. 

Some practice opening the ordinary pack at 
intervals, and sprinkling cool water upon the pa- 
tient, thus obtaining, in some degree, the pro- 
longed cooling effect. The pack must be studied 
well to enable one to apply it with skill, and cer- 
tainty of success. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 107 

DRY-SHEET PACK. 

Though this can hardly be called a bath at 
its commencement, it really becomes a wet-sheet 
pack before its termination. Its application dif- 
fers from that of the wet-sheet pack in that the 
patient is wrapped in woolen blankets instead of 
the wet sheet. The object of this treatment is 
to produce perspiration, which may be encour- 
aged by drinking either cold or hot drinks in con- 
siderable quantity, and by the application of dry 
artificial heat to the feet and sides. It is a very 
severe form of treatment, and is now seldom 
practiced. Many years ago, patients at hydro- 
pathic establishments were often kept for several 
hours in the dry pack, smothered beneath loads 
of comfortables, blankets, and feather-beds. If 
cautiously employed, it is occasionally useful in 
"breaking the chills," in fever and ague. It 
should be administered about half an hour before 
the time for the beginning of the chill, if required 
for this purpose. 

The several varieties of local packs are de- 
scribed under the head of Local Baths. 

FULL BATH. 

For this bath a tub is required the length of 
the body, about eighteen inches deep, two feet 
wide at the top, and, preferably, six inches nar- 
rower at the bottom. It is better to have the 
end intended for the head a little elevated. 



108 USES OF WATER. 

Place in the tub sufficient water so that the pa- 
tient will be entirely covered, with the exception 
of the head, when he lies upon his back. Dur- 
ing the bath, the body should be vigorously 
rubbed by the bather or an attendant, or both, 
particular pains being taken to knead and ma- 
nipulate the abdomen, in a gentle, but thorough 
manner. The temperature of the bath, when 
taken for cleanliness, or for its soothing effects, 
should be not more than 95°, and it should be 
cooled down to about 85° before the conclusion 
of the bath, by the addition of cool water. 

Every family ought to possess conveniences 
for this bath. Indeed, it is now found in every 
well-regulated modern house in our large cities. 
It is not so expensive but that any one can pos- 
sess it. Portable baths of rubber can be obtained 
which are worth many times their cost. A cheap 
bath can be constructed of duck well oiled or 
covered with paint and suspended from a frame ; 
but it will be quite unsatisfactory, not being per- 
fectly water-tight, as such a bath should be for 
family use. A stationary bath may be made of 
wood, of the dimensions given, and lined with 
lead or zinc. There should be an opening in the 
lower end for withdrawing the water. 

The full bath is one of the most refreshing of 
all baths, being also one of the most pleasant. 
Employed at a low temperature, it is a powerful 
means of reducing excessive heat in fevers. The 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 109 

hot full bath very promptly relieves the pains of 
acute rheumatism, and is almost a specific for 
colds, if taken just before retiring. Very hot and 
very cold temperatures are quite hazardous with 
this bath, since it involves so large a portion of 
the body. Such extremes are rarely useful in 
any case, and should not be used except under 
the eye of a physician. 

HALF BATH. 

The half bath is much the same as the full 
bath. A smaller tub is required, as the bather 
sits upright with his limbs extended. The water 
should be at least a foot deep. During the bath, 
the body should be well rubbed, and water should 
be poured over the upper portion of the body. 
Its general effects are nearly the same as those of 
the full bath, and it may be used for the same 
general purposes. A little more vigorous rubbing 
is required to prevent chilling, as so large a por- 
tion of the body is exposed. It affords a better 
opportunity for stirring up the bowels and ab- 
dominal viscera by shaking, percussing, and 
kneading the abdomen. 

SHALLOW BATH. 

Of this bath there are two varieties; sitting 
shallow and standing shallow. 

Sitting shallow differs from the half bath in 
employing less water, and being much more vig- 



110 USES OF WATER. 

orous. Its effects and uses are about the same. 
The bather should rub his limbs and the front 
portion of his body while the attendant pours 
water over his chest and shoulders, and rubs vig- 
orously his back and sides. A person can take 
the bath very well alone by using a rather long 
coarse towel which can be drawn back and forth 
across the back by grasping one end with each 
hand. It is a very valuable means of applying 
water, and is in constant requisition in the hy- 
dropathic establishments. From 85° to 90° is the 
proper temperature for this bath. It may be 
used at a lower temperature in fever cases. At 
Bellevue Hospital it is applied at about 70° in 
such cases, and is administered whenever the 
temperature exceeds 103°. To avoid the shock of 
a cool bath, it may be commenced at a tempera- 
ture little below blood-heat and then gradually 
cooled by the addition of cool water until the de- 
sired temperature is reached. The reduction of 
the temperature obtained by this means fully 
equals that obtained by the sudden application of 
cold, and the shock and subsequent reaction are 
prevented. This applies equally to all cool baths 
as well as the cool shallow bath. 

The duration of the bath may be from one to 
thirty minutes. Ten or fifteen minutes will be 
the usual extent. 

The Standing Shallow is in some cases preferred 
by some to the preceding. The patient stands 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. Ill 

erect in a varying depth of water — from six inch- 
es to one or two feet being employed — while 
his body is vigorously rubbed by one or two as- 
sistants, water being poured upon the chest and 
shoulders at brief intervals. Tt is a very enliven- 
ing bath. 

The shallow bath should be completed by a 
pail douche at a temperature three or four de- 
grees lower than that of the bath. 

AFFUSION. 

This consists simply in pouring water over the 
body of the patient, who may be sitting or stand- 
ing in a bath-tub. It is a very efficient bath for 
reducing unnatural heat. This mode of treat- 
ment was used by Hippocrates, Galen, and other 
ancient physicians. In the last century, Currie, 
Jackson, and many others used it with great suc- 
cess in scarlatina. It is a sovereign remedy for 
delirium tremens, sun-stroke, hysteria, and some- 
times of acute mania, when applied of the pro- 
per temperature. 

PAIL DOUCHE. 

This bath scarcely differs from the preceding. 
It consists in the dashing of one or more pailfuls 
of water upon the body of the bather by an as- 
sistant. By means of a proper arrangement, the 
bather can administer the bath himself. For this 
purpose, a pail or other vessel filled with water 



112 USES OF WATER. 

may be suspended or supported above the head of 
the bather in such a way that it can be quickly 
upset by drawing upon a string attached to the 
side. The stream should fall upon the shoulders, 
chest, back, or hips, but not upon the head or over 
the region of the stomach. This bath may be 
applied after any warm bath, and should be a lit- 
tle cooler than the bath which precedes it. 
Whether taken alone or after another bath, it 
should always be followed by vigorous rub- 
bing. 

CATARACT DOUCHE. 

This is a modification of the douche bath in 
which a broad sheet of water is allowed to fall 
upon the body of the bather. The force of the 
bath depends upon the height from which the 
water falls, arid should be regulated acoording to 
the strength of the patient. Almost any one will 
bear a fall of three or four feet. When the height 
of the bath cannot be easily modified, it should 
be of such an altitude as to be well borne by the 
feeblest patients ; the more vigorous can increase 
its effects by subjecting themselves to it for a 
longer time. 

The observations made relating to the applica- 
tion of the pail douche, apply equally well to 
this bath. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 113 

HOSE DOUCHE. 

In this bath, water under pressure is thrown 
upon the patient from a hose, through a small 
nozzle. The bather turns his body while the at- 
tendant directs the stream upon different parts. 
It is a less pleasant bath than the spray or other 
forms of douche. Its general effects are the same 
as those of the baths mentioned. 

SHOWER BATH. 

This bath is simply an imitation of rain. Water 
is allowed to fall upon the body after being di- 
vided into a number of small streams by passing 
through a vessel with a perforated bottom. Its 
effects depend upon the size of the streams and 
the height from which they fall, together with the 
temperature of the bath and its duration. Al- 
though formerly much employed in water-cure 
establishments, this bath is now little used, be- 
cause its place is supplied by other more conven- 
ient ones which produce the same results, as the 
spray and douche. The best manner of adminis- 
tering it is to commence the application with 
tepid water, and gradually cool it. The tempera- 
ture may range from 70° to 92°. The water 
should not usually be allowed to fall upon the 
head, but should be received first upon the hands 
and arms, then upon the feet and limbs, and af- 
terward upon the back and shoulders, the body 
being well rubbed during the application. 



114 USES OF WATER. 

The cold shower bath, formerly so common al- 
most everywhere, has been productive of much 
injury by its indiscriminate use, and has brought 
much reproach upon the use of water as a cura- 
tive agent. None but the most vigorous can en- 
joy the bath at a lower temperature than 70°, and 
no advantage is gained by its employment at a 
lower temperature than that, while considerable 
harm may be done in many cases. 

SPRAY BATH. 

This bath consists in a number of fine streams 
of water thrown upon the bather, with consider- 
able force. It may be produced by connecting a 
hose with spray attachment to a force-pump or 
reservoir from which to obtain water under a suf- 
ficient pressure. The best form of attachment 
consists of a hollow double-convex brass or copper 
piece, one side of which is perforated with fine 
holes, the other side carrying a rim for attach- 
ment to the hose. It is preferable to have an ar- 
rangement by which the temperature may be 
readily and gradually changed from warm or tepid 
to cool without interrupting the bath. In the ab- 
sence of a proper spray attachment, the appara- 
tus elsewhere described for the hose douche may 
be made to answer a very good purpose, the 
stream being broken by placing the thumb or 
finger over the nozzle in such a way as to par- 
tially obstruct the flow. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 115 

This is an excellent bath to follow the pack, 
vapor bath, hot-air bath, sitz bath, or any other 
general bath which induces perspiration. It is 
very agreeable to most persons, and can be applied 
to feeble patients who would be unable to take 
any more severe form of treatment. The alter- 
nate hot and cold spray is very successful as a 
means of reducing local inflammations. The warm 
bath is very grateful and soothing to swollen and 
rheumatic joints; in gout, also, and illy defined, 
wandering pains, it is an admirable remedy. It 
is very successful, also, in the treatment of tumors, 
abscesses, and chronic ulcers, when thoroughly 
applied. 

LOCAL BATHS, 

The use of water as a local application is not 
less important, and is much more varied, than its 
general application. There is no other topical 
remedy which will produce such a variety of ef- 
fects and such prompt results. In removing local 
congestions, subduing local inflammations, allay- 
ing circumscribed pain, and restoring activity to 
inactive parts, the appropriate applications of 
water give results which afford both physician 
and patient a degree of satisfaction which no 
other single remedy can rival, even electricity, an 
agent of acknowledged power, not being ex- 
cepted. 



116 USES OF WATER. 



SITZ BATH. 



The sitz bath, also known as the hip bath, is 
one of the most useful baths employed in hydro- 
pathic treatment. Its utility was fully recognized 
by the earlier practitioners, who sometimes kept 
their patients so long in the bath that they be- 
came almost literally water soaked, and were so 
numb from the long-continued application of cold 
water as to possess almost no external sensibility. 
It is said that in some cases the skin could be 
rubbed off in the attempts to obtain reaction, 
without the patient's knowledge. 

For this bath a common tub may be used, by 
placing a support under one edge to elevate it 
two or three inches ; but it is better to use a tub 
made for the purpose, which should have the 
back raised eight or ten inches higher than the 
front, to support the back, the sides sloping grad- 
ually so as to support the arms of the bather. 
The bottom should be elevated two or three 
inches. The depth in front should be about the 
same as that of a common wash-tub. 

Enough water is required to cover the hips and 
extend a little way up the abdomen ; four to six 
gallons will suffice. Any temperature may be 
employed, being suited to the condition of the 
patient. The duration of the bath will also vary 
according to circumstances. A short cool bath is 
tonic in its effects, like all shprt cool applications ; 
a more prolonged one is a powerful sedative. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 117 

The hot sitz is very exciting in its effects if long 
continued. The warm bath is relaxing. The 
hips and trunk should be well rubbed during the 
bath by the patient or an attendant. The bather 
should be covered with a sheet or blanket during 
the bath. If it is desirable to produce sweating, 
several blankets may be used. 

The sitz bath should seldom be taken either 
very hot or extremely cold. A very good plan 
for administering it, and one which will be ap- 
plicable to most cases, is this : Begin the bath at 
92° or 93°. If a thermometer is not at hand, 
pour into the bath-tub three gallons of fresh well 
or spring water, and then add one gallon of boil- 
ing water. This will give the desired tempera- 
ture. After the patient has been in the bath ten 
minutes, cool it down to 85°, which may be done 
by adding a gallon of well water. Continue the 
bath five minutes longer, then administer a pail 
douche or spray, at about 85°, and wipe dry, as 
directed after a rubbing wet-sheet. 

The sitz bath is useful for chronic congestions 
of the abdominal and pelvic viscera, diarrhea, 
piles, dysentery, constipation, uterine diseases, 
and genital and urinary disorders. In treating 
female diseases it is an indispensable remedy. It 
is very valuable in various nervous affections, es- 
pecially those which immediately involve the 
brain. 

There is no better remedy for a cold than a 



118 USES OF WATER. 

very warm sitz bath taken while fasting, and 
just before retiring. It should be continued un- 
til gentle perspiration is induced. 

The sitz may be converted into a general bath 
by rubbing the whole body with the wet hand 
while in the bath, and may thus be made to an- 
swer the purposes of the half and shallow baths. 

LEG BATH. 

For this bath a vessel deep enough to receive 
the limbs to the middle of the thighs is required. 
The bath may be taken at any desired tempera- 
ture ; but it is usually employed somewhat cooler 
than baths which involve the trunk of the body. 
It is a powerfully derivative bath, and is found 
very useful to prevent wakefulness in nervous 
persons, and to relieve cerebral congestion in ep- 
ileptic patients. It is especially applicable to 
chronic ulcers of the leg, swollen knees and an- 
kles, and limbs which have suffered by exposure 
to severe cold. It gives much relief in gout; 
there is no danger of causing a metastasis of the 
disease by the application of this bath. 

FOOT BATH. 

Any vessel sufficiently large to receive the feet, 
and enough water to cover them to the ankles, is 
suitable for this bath. The feet should be rubbed 
during the bath. If the temperature is cool, 
only an inch 01^ two of water should be employed. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 119 

The walking foot bath is an excellent remedy 
for cold feet. It consists in walking in shallow 
water five or ten minutes. 

The alternate hot-and- cold foot bath is another 
valuable remedy for cold feet, and is a certain 
remedy for chilblains. It is given thus : Place 
the feet in hot water— 100° to 110°— three or 
four minutes. Then withdraw them and plunge 
them quickly into a bath of cold water — 60° or 
less. After two or three minutes, restore them 
to the hot bath. Thus alternate three or four 
times, and conclude by dipping the feet quickly 
into cold water and wiping dry. This bath pro- 
duces most powerful reaction. 

The foot bath is applicable in the treatment of 
headache, neuralgia, toothache, catarrh, conges- 
tion of abdominal and pelvic organs, colds, and 
cold feet. It is very useful as a preparatory for 
other baths, and as an accompaniment of other 
local applications. 

HALF PACK. 

This bath is given in the same manner as the 
wet-sheet pack, except that the wet sheet extends 
only from the armpits to the hips. The blank- 
ets are wrapped about the patient in the manner 
described for the full pack. All the precautions 
given in connection with the description of that 
bath are applicable to this. 

This bath is frequently employed ir>. cases of 



120 USES OF WATER. 

patients who are too feeble to bear the full pack, 
or as a preparatory treatment for that bath. It 
is much milder than the full pack, and is usually 
more agreeable to the patient, as it does not con- 
fine him so closely. It is a very useful remedy 
in all inflammations of the abdominal organs, gas- 
tralgia, pleurisy, acute brochitis, croup, and pneu- 
monia. When a hot application is required, it is 
well to use a woolen sheet instead of a cotton 
one. It requires the same after-treatment as the 
full pack. 

CHEST PACK. 

This application is made in the same manner 
as the half pack, allowing the wet sheet to ex- 
tend only from the armpits to the navel. It is 
especially applicable to diseases of the chest. 
The general directions for the full and the half 
pack apply to it. It is a very mild application. 

LEG PACK. 

The pack may be applied to the legs with 
great advantage in cases of habitual coldness of 
the feet and limbs or knees. The same principles 
mentioned in relation to other packs apply to 
this. The application should be made either 
cool or cold, and should extend from the hips 
downward. It should continue from half an hour 
to an hour and a half. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATEH. 121 

CHEST WRAPPER. 

This consists of a jacket made something like 
a vest, reaching from the neck to a little below 
the navel. It should be made of double thicknesses 
of soft toweling. To protect the garments or bed- 
ding from moisture, it should be covered with an- 
other jacket made like it but a little larger. In 
applying it, the wrapper should be wet in tepid 
water, and should then be applied as snugly as 
consistent with the comfort of the wearer. It 
should be re-applied every two or three hours, as 
it becomes dry. 

If properly managed, the chest wrapper is a 
valuable remedy ; but it has been greatly abused. 
It should not be worn more than a week with- 
out intermission. The practice of some in contin- 
uing it until it produces an eruption of the skin, 
and even longer — to promote a discharge — under 
the idea that a vicarious elimination is thus per- 
formed, is highly reprehensible, and has no sound 
physiological principle to support it. Such treat- 
ment is damaging to the skin, and does the pa- 
tient no good in any way. The better plan is to 
allow the wrapper to be worn during the night, 
but omitted during the daytime. If worn during 
the day, it should be changed often, and should 
be removed so soon as the patient becomes chilly. 
Whenever removed, the surface of the skin should 
be washed or sponged with cool or tepid water. 
Feeble patients with defective circulation should 

Water. I 



122 USES OF WATER. 

wear the wrapper only while walking or riding 
on horseback. 

This appliance may be profitably employed in 
a large number of chronic diseases. In chronic 
bronchitis, pleurisy, pleurodynia, asthma, and 
the early stages of consumption, it gives relief. 

WET GIRDLE. 

This was a favorite remedy with the early 
German hydropathists, and it is a very useful ap- 
pliance when properly employed, though it has 
been much abused by excessive use, as in the 
case of the chest wrapper. To apply it well, a 
coarse towel about three yards long is the most 
convenient for use. Wet one-half of this, in tep- 
id water, wring it until it will not drip, and apply 
it to the abdomen, placing one end at the side, 
and bringing it across the front first, so that two 
thicknesses of the wet portion will cover the abdo- 
men. After winding the whole tightly around the 
body, fasten the end securely. The remarks made 
in reference to the wearing of the chest wrapper 
apply with equal force to the wet girdle. For 
feeble patients it is better to wet only that por- 
tion of the towel which covers the abdomen. 

This a very efficient remedy for constipation, 
chronic diarrhea, and most other intestinal dis- 
orders. It is equally valuable in dyspepsia, tor- 
pid liver, enlarged spleen, and uterine derange- 
ments. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATEK. 123 

ASCENDING DOUCHE. 

This modification of the douche is simply an 
ascending instead of a descending stream. It 
can be readily managed by constructing a reser- 
voir in such position as to give the water ten or 
twelve feet fall, when the requisite force cannot 
be more easily secured. The water is conducted 
through a hose, and is allowed to issue through 
a nozzle near the floor. The patient sits or lies 
just over the nozzle, and a few inches above it. 

This is a valuable remedy in treating piles, pro- 
lapsus of the bowels or uterus, and constipation. 

DROP BATH. 

In applying this bath, a vessel with a small 
opening in the bottom is elevated to a consider- 
able height, water placed in it being allowed to 
drop upon the part to be treated. The aperture 
in the vessel should be only sufficiently large to 
give egress to a single drop at a time. The bath 
may also be given by placing in an elevated ves- 
sel one end of a skein of cotton yarn, the other 
being allowed to fall over the edge of the vessel 
and hang below it. By capillary attraction the 
water will be drawn up into the yarn and will 
drop off at the lower end very slowly. 

This is a very convenient way of applying 
water where its cooling effects are required for a 
considerable length of time, as in wounds, bruises, 
sprains, and similar cases. It will " keep down 



124 USES OF WATER. 

inflammation " in a wonderful manner. It is not 
commonly necessary that the water should be 
very cold, as evaporation will keep the part suf- 
ficiently cool in most cases. 

ARM BATH. 

This is simply holding the arm in water of 
proper temperature. It is extremely useful in 
such painful affections as felons, sprains, and 
nearly all injuries of the hand and arm. Ulcers 
and acute and chronic skin diseases of the hands 
and arm are usually benefited by this bath. If 
cold water is painful, its application should be 
preceded by that of hot water, or alternated with 
it. Cold hands should be frequently rubbed in 
cool water, and alternately immersed for a few 
minutes each in hot and cold water. In case of 
painful felons, the arm must be immersed to the 
elbow to relieve the pain, although the disease 
is only in the finger. • 

HEAD BATH. 

The patient should lie upon his back, resting 
his head in a shallow basin of cool water. The 
attendant should bathe the forehead, face, and 
temples during the bath. The bath may be con- 
tinued until the heat is removed or lessened. 

The pouring head bath is often preferable to 
the preceding. The patient should lie upon a 
bed or sofa, face downward, allowing his head 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 125 

to extend outward over a tub or other wide ves- 
sel, while the water is poured upon the head 
from a little height, by an assistant. The water 
may be either hot or cold, according to existing 
conditions. Very cold water is not usually ad- 
visable, as its application soon becomes painful, 
and produces powerful reaction. It should be 
tepid or temperate. Some cases require very hot 
water for a few minutes, followed by a slight af- 
fusion of tepid water. 

In hysteria, epilepsy, apoplexy, sun-stroke, 
acute mania, delirium tremens, and cerebral con- 
gestion from any cause, the head bath is a 
promptly efficacious remedy. 

EYE BATH. 

Water may be applied to the eye in various 
ways. A convenient method when only a brief 
application is necessary, is to lave the eye with 
water dipped by the hand. A gentle spray may 
be applied, or the eyes may be opened and closed 
in water, thus bringing them freely in contact 
with the element. Small glass cups made for 
the purpose may be filled with water and placed 
over the eye, the water being frequently changed ; 
or wet cloths inay be laid upon them. 

In applying water to the eye, it is important 
to be able to first distinguish the exact nature of 
the difficulty, as much damage m&y otherwise be 
done by a wrong application. As a general rule, 



126 USES OF WATER. 

inflammations of the conjunctiva and external 
structures of the eye require cool or cold applica- 
tions, while inflammations of the cornea, iris, and 
other internal structures, require hot applications. 
This rule is often violated in hydropathic estab- 
lishments through ignorance of the structure and 
diseases of the eye. 

Cool applications are best made by laying up- 
on the eyes thin folds of linen cloth wet in cold 
water. Not more than two or three thicknesses 
should be used, as a thick compress soon becomes 
warm, while a thin one is kept cool for a longer 
time by evaporation. The compress should be 
changed every five minutes, at least, when there 
is much inflammation. The fomentation is as 
good as any method of applying hot water to the 
eyes. The application, when hot, should be as 
hot as the patient can well bear. If it affords 
relief, continue half an hour or more; if it in- 
creases the pain, desist at once. The same may 
be said of cold applications also. 

Alternate hot and cold applications will give 
most relief in some cases. After a hot applica- 
tion, a slightly cooler one should always be ap- 
plied for a few minutes. 

A little milk, quince-seed mucilage, or other 
bland substance, added to the water, makes it 
more agreeable to the eye in bathing it. 

The eye bath is applicable in all inflammations 
and injuries of the eye, and is infinitely superior 
to all other eye washes. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 127 

Daily bathing the eyes in tepid water is a good 
practice for those who use them much in reading, 
writing, or other work requiring close attention. 
Many eyes are ruined by neglect and maltreat- 
ment. 

EAR BATH. 

Water applications are made to the ear by 
means of fomentations, compresses, the douche, 
or the spray. Compresses and fomentations are 
useful in inflammations of the structures of the 
ear, including abscesses which often form in the 
walls of the external canal. Alternate hot and 
cold applications are useful in causing the ab- 
sorption of inflammatory deposits, and thus restor- 
ing the hearing. The douche, administered with 
the fountain syringe, is a valuable means of re- 
moving foreign bodies and insects. The warm 
douche has proved very serviceable in restoring 
the hearing by removing hardened ear-wax. In 
administering the douche, the head should be in- 
clined over a basin, while the stream of water is 
allowed to issue from the nozzle held close to the 
external opening of the ear. Violent syringing 
of the ear should never be practiced, as it may 
occasion irreparable injury. 

NOSE BATH. 

This bath is administered either by drawing 
water into the nose while the mouth is closed, or 
by injecting it by means of a fountain syringe. 



128 USES OF WATER. 

Great care should always be exercised to apply 
the water gently, as a forcible application will 
cause pain and irritation. Injection should never 
be practiced with a pfston syringe, as there is lia- 
bility of forcing the water into the Eustachian 
canals and producing deafness. The tempera- 
ture of the water should be warm or tepid for 
most applications. 

Much benefit may be derived by the proper 
use of this bath in case of acute or chronic ca- 
tarrh. The addition of a slight portion of salt to 
the water does no harm, and a slightly saline 
fluid is sometimes less unpleasant than pure wa- 
ter, probably because it is more nearly like the 
mucous secretion of the nasal mucous membrane. 
Drawing cold water into the nose is sometimes 
recommended for hemorrhage from the nose ; but 
it is of doubtful utility, because the application 
cannot be continuous, and transient applications 
of cold water are always followed by an afflux of 
blood to the part so exposed. There are better 
remedies for nose-bleed. 

COMPRESSES. 

The compress is a wet cloth or bandage applied 
to a part. The object may be to cool the part 
under treatment, or to retain heat. The com- 
press may be used with equal success for either 
purpose. When the part is to be cooled, a com- 
press composed of several folds should be wet in 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 129 

cool, cold, or iced water, as required, and placed 
upon the part after being wrung so it will not 
drip. It should be changed as often as every jive 
minutes. This is often neglected to the injury 
of the patient. A very cold compress may be 
prepared by placing snow or pounded ice between 
the folds of the compress. This will not need 
renewal so frequently; but its effects must be 
carefully watched, as injury may be done by neg- 
lect. In applying cold to such delicate parts as 
the eye, a very thin compress is better. It should 
be renewed once in five minutes, at least. 

When accumulated warmth is required, a thick 
compress is applied, being wrung out of tepid 
water, and covered with a dry cloth to exclude 
the air. Soft, dry flannel is an excellent cover- 
ing. Rubber or oiled silk may be employed 
when the compress is not to be retained more 
than a few hours ; but if it is to be worn contin- 
uously, they will be injurious, as they are im- 
pervious to air and thus interfere with the func- 
tion of the skin. The effects of a compress thus 
applied are identical with those of the poultice, 
and the application is a much more cleanly one. 

Compresses are applicable in all cases in which 
poultices are commonly used. They may replace 
the old-fashioned plasters with profit and comfort 
to the wearer. The wet-sheet pack, half pack 
chest pack and wrapper, leg pack, and wet gird- 
le are all large compresses. 



130 USES OF WATER. 

When applied continuously in the same place 
for a long time, the compress occasions a consid- 
erable eruption of the skin, and sometimes boils 
and carbuncles. There is no particular advantage 
in these eruptions, and they sometimes do much 
harm by producing a great degree of general irri- 
tation. The notion that they purify the system, 
though a very popular one, has really a very 
slight foundation. The discharge is largely made 
up of elements which would be of great utility 
if retained in the system, and the amount of 
foul matter eliminated in this way is certainly 
infinitesimal compared with the amount thrown 
off by a few inches of healthy skin. The skin 
can always do more and better work when 
healthy than when diseased. The eruptions are 
no doubt due to debility of the skin, produced 
by a too long continuance of the very abnormal 
conditions supplied by the compress. Yet, strange 
as it may appear, there are those claiming to be 
physicians who directly aim to produce inflamed 
and irritated surfaces by the continuation of the 
compress for months and even years. 

The wet head cap is a compress made to fit the 
head. It should consist of several thicknesses of 
cotton or linen cloth, so as to retain moisture for 
some time. It is a good temporary appliance in 
diseases of the scalp, and for headache; but it 
should never be worn continuously for the pur- 
pose of relieving congestion, as it will have an 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 131 

effect just the opposite of that desired. In ecze- 
ma of the scalp it may be worn until the disease 
is cured, being frequently rewetted. It is an ex- 
cellent means of preventing sun-stroke and other 
effects of heat when worn beneath the hat in 
summer ; but even for this purpose its use should 
be temporary, the cap being worn only during 
the hotter portion of the day. 

FOMENTATIONS. 

The fomentation is a local application analo- 
gous to such general appliances as the hot pack, 
vapor bath, and hot-air bath. It consists in the 
application of a cloth wet in hot water. It may 
be considered as a hot compress. Fold a soft 
flannel cloth twice, so that it will be of three or 
four thicknesses. Lay it in a basin, pour boiling 
water upon it, and wring it dry by folding it in 
a dry towel. Or, if only one end of the cloth is 
wet, it may be wrung by folding the dry portion 
outside of the wet ; in wringing, the whole will 
become equally wet. Apply it to the patient as 
hot as it can be borne. The second application 
can usually be made much hotter than the first. 
Frequently dipping the hands in cold water will 
enable the attendant to wring the cloth much 
hotter than he would otherwise be able to do. 
The most convenient way is to heat the cloths in 
a steamer ; by this means they are made as hot 
as boiling water, and yet they are more easily 



132 USES OF WATER. 

handled, not being saturated with water. When 
no hot water is at hand, a fomentation may, in an 
emergency, be quickly prepared by wetting the 
flannel in cool water, wringing it as dry as de- 
sired, folding it between the leaves of a newspa- 
per, and laying it upon the top of the stove, or 
holding it smoothly against the side. The paper 
prevents the cloth from becoming soiled, the wa- 
ter protects the paper from burning, and the 
steam generated quickly heats the cloth to boil- 
ing heat. For a long fomentation, the heat may 
be made continuous by applying over the wet 
cloth a hot brick or slab of soapstone. 

The hot cloths should be re-applied once in five 
minutes. Two cloths should be employed, so 
that the second may be applied the moment the 
first is removed. To retain the heat, a dry flan- 
nel, rubber, or oil-cloth should be placed over the 
fomentation. The application may be continued 
from ten minutes to half an hour, or longer in 
special cases. This appliance is very powerful, 
and should not be employed to excess. Alternate 
hot and cold fomentations are frequently more 
efficient than the continuous fomentation. Hot 
applications should always be followed by a cool 
or tepid compress for four or five minutes, at least. 

The uses of the fomentation are very numer- 
ous. It is indicated whenever there is local pain 
without excessive heat, or evidences of acute in- 
flammation. Local congestions, neuralgia, tooth- 
ache, pleurisy, pleurodynia, and most local pains 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 133 

vanish beneath its potent influence as if by magic. 
For indigestion, colic, constipation, torpid liver, 
dysmenorrhea, and rheumatic pains, it is a rem- 
edy of great power, and is used with almost uni- 
form success. In relieving sick headache by ap- 
plication to the head, neck, and stomach, its ef- 
ficiency is unrivaled. 

When applied to the head for some time with- 
out intermission, it will often occasion faintness ; 
hence, a cooler application should be made after 
the use of the hot cloths for fifteen or twenty 
minutes. 

If the applications must 'be continued for a long 
time, it is well in most cases to apply them at a 
temperature slightly lower than when they are 
to be used for only a few minutes. 

This remedy may well replace the blisters, 
plasters, cataplasms, scarifications, rubefacients, 
and other irritating measures so long used for re- 
lieving pain, local congestions, and inflammations. 

REFRIGERANT APPLICATIONS. 

A freezing mixture which will reduce the tem- 
perature to 4° is made by mixing equal parts of 
salt and pounded ice. The ice and salt should be 
stirred together very quickly and applied at once 
to "the part to be frozen. Two parts of dry snow 
and one of salt make an equally good mixture. 
. Freezing is more conveniently performed by the 
rapid evaporation of ether or rhigoline. 



134 USES OF WATER. 

Freezing is a useful process in numerous cases. 
By its use, excresences — as warts, wens, and polypi 
—fibrous tumors, and even malignant tumors, as 
cancer, may be successfully removed. Small can- 
cers may sometimes be cured by repeated and 
long- continued freezing. Their growth may cer- 
tainly be impeded by this means. Felons, if 
treated early in their course, may be cured by two 
or three freezings. 

For freezing a felon, place the finger in a mixt- 
ure of ice and salt, or surround it with cotton, 
saturate the cotton with ether or rhigoline, and 
blow it very strongly with a pair of bellows. 
This is a very good method when an apparatus 
for producing a fine spray is not at hand. The 
latter instrument facilitates the freezing very 
much if used with the bellows. 

No harm results from repeated freezing if prop- 
er care is used in thawing the frozen parts. 
They should be kept immersed in cool water, or 
covered with cloths kept cool by frequent wetting 
with cold water, until the natural feeling is re- 
stored. 

The application of ice is found extremely ser- 
viceable in many inflammatory diseases, and in 
some nervous affections. In inflammation of the 
brain, the ice cap is of inestimable value. Ice ap- 
plied to the spine will check the convulsive spasms 
of chorea and hysteria when other remedies fail. 
In putrid sore throat, or malignant diphtheria. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 135 

ice is a sovereign remedy. It should be applied 
to the neck externally, and held in small bits in 
the mouth. Small bits swallowed will sometimes 
relieve the pains of gastralgia. 

Rubber bags are very convenient for applying 
ice or iced water ; but their place can be very well 
supplied by dried bladders filled with pounded ice. 
The ice-cap is a double head-cap stuffed with 
pounded ice. 

Some physicians recommend the application of 
ice to the spine in cases of congestive chill and 
paralysis, and in inflammation of the stomach, 
kidneys, uterus, and other internal organs. The 
real worth of such applications in these cases has 
yet to be determined by careful and repeated ob- 
servations. We would not recommend an unskill- 
ful person to attempt to relieve a violent ague 
chill by rubbing ice on the patient's back, and we 
have some fears that a very skillful operator 
would hardly succeed to his entire satisfaction 
and that of the patient. 

The snow bath, applied by rubbing the part 
vigorously with snow, is a useful application for 
restoring the circulation to frosted parts. In 
cases of extreme chilling or absolute freezing, 
there is perhaps no better remedy. Powdered ice 
may be used when snow cannot be readily pro- 
cured. 



136 USES OF WATER. 

MISCELLANEOUS BATHS, ETC 

VAPOR BATH. 

This bath can be readily and successfully ad- 
ministered with such conveniences as every fam- 
ily possess. Place the patient in a cane-seat chair, 
having first taken the precaution to spread over 
the seat a dry towel. Surround the patient and 
the chair first with a woolen blanket, and then 
with two or three thick comfortables, drawing the 
blankets close around his neck, and allowing them 
to trail upon the floor so as to exclude the air as 
perfectly as possible. Now place under the chair 
a large pan or pail containing two or three quarts 
of boiling water. Let the blankets fall quickly 
so as to retain the rising vapor. After a minute 
or two, raise the blankets a little at one side and 
carefully place in the vessel a very hot brick or 
stone, dropping the blankets again as soon as possi- 
ble to avoid the admission of cold air. Before the 
first brick or stone has cooled, add another, and 
so continue until the patient perspires freely. The 
amount of perspiration must be judged by the 
face and forehead, as much of the moisture on the 
skin beneath the blankets is condensed steam. 
Should the bath become at any time too hot, a 
little air may be admitted by raising the bottom 
of the blankets a little, being careful to avoid 
chilling the patient in so doing. The bath should 
seldom be continued more than half an hour, 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 137 

and fifteen to twenty minutes will usually accom- 
plish all that is desired by the bath. If too long 
continued, it induces faintness. A too high tem- 
perature will be indicated by a strongly accelerat- 
ed pulse, throbbing of the temples, flushed face, 
and headache. The head should be kept cool by 
a compress wet in cool water and often changed. 
The temperature of the bath should be from 100° 
to 115°. Unpleasant effects are sometimes pro- 
duced at 120°. 

After this bath, app]y the tepid spray, rubbing 
wet-sheet, pail douche, or full bath. No time 
should be allowed to elapse after the blankets are 
removed before the concluding bath is applied, as 
the patient will chill. He should not be allowed 
to become chilly by exposure to cool air before the 
application of the spray, douche, or other bath, 
which should be followed by vigorous rubbing. 

For " breaking up a cold," relieving rheuma- 
tism, soreness of the muscles from overexertion, 
and relaxing stiffened joints, this is a valuable 
agent. It may also be used to advantage in 
chronic diseases in which there is torpidity of 
the skin; but great care must be exercised to 
avoid excessive use, as too frequent repetitions of 
the bath produce debility. 

This is a milder application than the hot-air 
bath, unless employed at a high temperature, 
120° or more, when it becomes more severe. 

In institutions where the bath is in daily req- 

Water. J 



138 USES OF WATER. 

uisition, a permanent arrangement for giving the 
bath is usually employed. It sometimes consists 
of a box in which the patient sits upon a stool, 
his head being allowed to remain outside by a 
suitable opening. A wet towel is placed around 
the neck to prevent the steam from rising about 
the head. Others prefer a box or small room large 
enough to admit the whole person, the whole 
body being subjected to the warm vapor. An 
opening guarded by a curtain is made in one side 
to allow the bather to inhale cool air if he should 
wish to do so, and to give the attendant access to 
the patient without chilling him by the admission 
of a large quantity of cold air. As in the sim- 
pler form of vapor bath, the head should be kept 
constantly cool by a cool wet compress often re- 
applied. Patients troubled with " rush of blood 
to the head/' should be further protected by a 
large cool compress placed around the neck and 
the upper part of the chest. 

Steam may be generated for these larger baths 
by boiling water in the box with a spirit-lamp 
or a gas-burner, or it may be conducted into the 
box hy a rubber tube connected with a tight boiler. 

RUSSIAN BATH. 

This is essentially the same in effect as the 
vapor bath. It consists of a room filled with 
vapor, and so arranged that by transferring the 
patient from one point to another the heat may 
be gradually increased. It has no advantages 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 139 

not afforded by the simpler vapor bath. It is 
now much used in the larger cities. Probably 
as much harm as good results from the indis- 
criminate and reckless manner in which it is em- 
ployed. Patients have been known to die in the 
bath of apoplexy induced by the excessive heat. 
It is followed by shampooing and cooling baths 
of various sorts. 

HOT-AIR BATH. 

In administering this bath, prepare the pa- 
tient precisely as directed for the vapor bath. 
Instead of placing under the chair a \essel of 
hot water, place a large alcohol lamp or a small 
dish containing a few ounces of alcohol. When 
all is ready, light the lamp or alcohol, and care- 
fully exclude the air. It is hardly necessary to 
suggest the propriety of putting the lamp in 
such a position as to insure safety from fire. If 
alcohol is used in an open dish, it is important 
to wipe the outside of the vessel quite free from 
any trace of the fluid,, as otherwise it might be 
communicated to the floor or carpet. Also avoid 
spilling any portion in putting it in place, for 
the same reason. It is a very good precaution 
to place the dish containing the burning alcohol 
in a plate or shallow vessel containing a little 
water. 

This bath should be conducted in the same 
manner as the vapor bath. A temperature of 
140° to 1 60° is not at all disagreeable to the pa- 



HO USES OF WATER. 

tient. At 170° or 180° the same effects are pro- 
duced as in the vapor bath at 120°. The bath 
should be followed by cooling baths as directed 
for the vapor bath. 

This is a very valuable remedy for the same 
class of diseases for which the vapor bath is 
recommended. It is of very great service in 
cases of dropsy, Bright's disease with poison- 
ing from retained urea, and all cases in which 
a vigorous elimination by the skin is desired. 
It should not be continued longer than the vapor 
bath, and much harm may result from its too 
frequent employment. Like the vapor bath, this 
may be conducted in a suitable box with an open- 
ing for the head. 

TURKISH BATH. 

This is entirely analogous to the hot-air bath, 
though on a much more elaborate plan. The 
patient is gradually conducted from a tempera- 
ture of 120° to that of 160° or even much more 
than 200°. The bath is concluded by shampoo- 
ing, rubbing, cooling baths, and gradual cooling 
in a room maintained at a temperature of 70°. 

The uses of this bath are the same as those of 
the hot-air bath. It has no advantages over it 
of very great importance, and is much more lia- 
ble to produce injury by prolonged and frequent 
application. It generally occupies an hour, and 
by those who resort to it as a luxury, as did the 
ancient Romans, it is often prolonged to several 
hours. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 141 

The long-continued application of excessive 
heat to the body is a very unnatural process. 
It tends to produce permanent relaxation and de- 
bility of the cutaneous tissues, and the manner 
in which this bath is administered in Turkish 
bath establishments is productive of great harm. 
It is often presented to invalids as almost a pana- 
cea ; and is given alike to the strong and vigor- 
ous, and the weak and debilitated. 

The bath is certainly good in its place, but it 
is decidedly bad when abused. Many consider 
the hot-air bath greatly preferable since it obvi- 
ates the necessity of inhaling superheated air, 
the effects of which upon the lungs are said to 
be injurious. The hot-air bath is doubtless safer. 

ELECTRIC BATH. 

Electricity may be more efficiently applied in 
connection with water than by itself. Water is 
a better conductor of electricity than the dry 
skin, and hence facilitates its communication to 
the body. The ordinary method of applying 
electricity is by attaching one pole of the bat- 
tery to a metallic plate, placed in contact with 
some part of the body, while the circuit is com- 
pleted by the application to the patient of a 
moist sponge connected with the other pole. 
The operator often holds one pole in his hand 
and applies the other hand, moistened, to the 
part to be treated. He is in this way enabled 
to judge very accurately of the strength of the 



142 ' USES OF WATER. 

current applied. The metallic plate is frequent- 
ly placed at the feet of the patient, sometimes 
in a foot bath. The sponge may be applied to 
various parts of the body while the patient is in 
a sitz bath. For a general application of electrici- 
ty the full bath is most convenient. 

This bath is applicable to a very large variety 
of conditions. To describe them all would be to 
give nearly all the uses of electricity as a remedi- 
al agent, which does not come within the scope 
of this work. The electric full bath has been 
strongly recommended for the removal of miner- 
al poisons from the body. Just how efficacious 
it is in this respect, we cannot confidently affirm. 
Probably its value has been somewhat exagger- 
ated. Only the primary or galvanic current 
could be of any service in this direction. 

Electricity is generally acknowledged to be a 
powerful remedial agent; but its use requires 
costly apparatus and much skill in application. 
It is necessary that the operator should not only 
understand the nature of diseases and the proper 
methods of applying electricity in treating them, 
but he must also thoroughly understand the gen- 
eral laws of electricity. The electric bath is as 
badly abused by quacks and charlatans as the 
Turkish bath. It should not be employed by 
unskillful persons ; and for this and other rea- 
sons given, it is not well adapted to home use. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 143 

ELECTRO-VAPOR BATH. 

This is a combination of the electric and the 
vapor bath, the electricity being applied to the 
body by means of the sponge, and metallic plates 
covered with moistened cloths. It is a valuable 
appliance if carefully used ; but, like all effective 
modes of treatment, it is very liable to excessive 
use, which becomes abuse. It has been very high- 
ly lauded by certain specialists, and doubtless its 
value has been unstintedly exaggerated. It is 
perhaps not well proven that its effects are great- 
ly superior to the effects of the vapor bath and 
electric bath administered separately; and the 
latter mode would be more convenient, though 
consuming a little more time. 

DRY RUBBING-SHEET. 

Cover the patient with a soft, dry sheet in the 
same manner as directed for applying the wet 
sheet in the rubbing wet-sheet bath. Then rub 
lightly but briskly upon the outside of the sheet 
with the flat hand. Do not rub with the sheet, 
but over it. Continue the rubbing ten or fifteen 
minutes, going over the whole body several times, 
and not neglecting the arms, the hands, and the 
feet. This application may be administered daily 
with profit to nearly all patients. It should al- 
ways follow any form of general bath in which 
water is employed, as a means of drying the body. 
It promotes activity of the skin, and equalizes 
the circulation. 



144 USES OF WATER. 

DRY HAND-RUBBING. 

This application is much the same in effect as 
the preceding, though a little more soothing, and 
hence better adapted to nervous patients. It 
consists in rubbing the body gently with the 
palm of the dry hand. The force of the rubbing 
should be nicely graduated to the condition of the 
patient. When employed to excite considerable 
activity of the skin, the rubbing may be accom- 
panied with kneading of the abdomen, and light 
percussion of the surface. 

Gentle rubbing of the skin is a very soothing 
process. It will frequently induce sleep when 
other means are ineffectual. Rubbing the back 
and limbs downward, and gentle rubbing of the 
temples, are very soothing to children and nerv- 
ous invalids. 

AIR BATH. 

The air has a very soothing effect upon the 
body when allowed to come in contact with the 
entire surface. It answers a very valuable pur- 
pose when a water bath is impossible, or when 
the patient is too feeble to endure the applica- 
tion of water. A sleepless person will often fall 
into a sound and refreshing slumber after walk- 
ing a few minutes in his room with the whole 
body exposed to the air. The effects of night 
labor upon literary people may be partially coun- 
teracted by the air bath. Benjamin Franklin 
was accustomed to pursue his writing to a late 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 14 "> 

hour after divesting himself of his clothing, and 
he recommends the practice to others compelled 
to labor late with the pen. 

SUN BATH. 

The value of sunlight as a hygienic agent is so 
universally recognized — theoretically if not prac- 
tically — that we nead not devote space to its con- 
sideration in this connection. Sunlight is essen- 
tial to the healthy performance of the vital func- 
tions, and must be equally important as an aid 
to remedial processes. This fact has been am- 
ply demonstrated by hospital experience, which 
shows a much larger percentage of recoveries in 
rooms abundantly exposed to the sun than in 
those secluded from its rays. 

That the sun has a powerful influence upon 
the skin is shown by the great increase of pig- 
ment in that structure when freely exposed to 
the sunlight. This results from an increased 
activity of the cutaneous tissues. 

Experience has shown that the sun bath can 
be employed to advantage in most chronic dis- 
eases. The patient simply lies in a position in 
which the naked skin can be freely exposed to 
the rays of the sun. The head should be shaded. 
The bath should not be continued so long as to 
produce unpleasant effects either upon the skin 
or the general system. It may be accompanied 
and followed with the dry hand-rubbing. 



146 USES OF WATEft. 



SEABATHING. 



Bathing in the sea is much practiced by fash- 
ionable people who make annual visits to the 
sea-coast for this purpose. It is no doubt useful, 
though many who participate in it would doubt- 
less receive quite as much benefit if they took as 
many baths at home during the whole year as 
they take at the fashionable watering-places in a 
single week. It is a fine thing to be well washed 
once a year, however, if not more often. 

As generally conducted, sea-bathing is not more 
beneficial than harmful. The dissipation accom- 
panying it more than counterbalances what good 
might be gained. It is rather absurd to attribute 
any specific virtues to sea-water, as many do. 
Quite a large business is carried on in the evap- 
oration of sea-water and the sale of the dirty 
residue, which is again dissolved in water and 
used in bathing by those who live too far inland 
to enjoy the benefits of bathing in the sea, or 
who prefer to take their sea-bath in their own 
private bath-room. Everything must have a 
counterfeit, and so this seasalt is imitated by 
base swindlers who prepare a mixture of chemic- 
als just as powerful, but not quite so complicat- 
ed, and less dirty, though certainly equally good. 
All of this trouble and swindling might be saved 
if people would only consider for a moment the 
fact that all the benefit they obtain from bath- 
ing is derived from the exercise, the temperature* 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 147 

and pure water, and not from any impurities 
which the water may chance to contain. 

Sea-bathing is usually overdone. More bene- 
fit will be gained by one or two daily baths than 
by a half-dozen. Fifty baths in a single week 
are not equivalent to a single bath each in fifty 
weeks. 

MEDICATED BATHS. 

We have no faith in medicated baths in gen- 
eral. They are occasionally useful for the de- 
struction of vermin, animal parasites, and perhaps 
in certain cases of skin disease. Generally, it is 
far better to take the limpid element "Simon 
pure," unadulterated. Many medicated baths 
have acquired great celebrity by the performance 
of cures really wonderful, but wholly attributable 
to water only, in spite of, rather than in conjunc- 
tion with, the foreign medicament added. 

OIL BATH. 

Inunction was greatly practiced by the ancients 
in connection with the Roman and Turkish baths. 
It consists in rubbing the skin very thoroughly 
with some unctuous substance. Olive oil may 
be employed, but cosmoline or vaseline, two re- 
fined products of coal oil, are in some respects 
preferable. Olive oil cannot be obtained pure, 
except at almost fabulous prices. That sold in 
the drug stores as olive oil is really cotton-seed 
oil and mixtures of lard with various other veg- 
etable oils. 



148 USES OF WATER. 

A warm bath should first be administered. 
Then dry the patient, as usual, and apply the 
unguent, taking care to rub it in thoroughly. 
Simply greasing the surface is not the object 
sought. The skin and flesh should be worked, 
rubbed, and kneaded until the oil nearly disap- 
pears from the surface. 

The object of this application is to supply the 
place of defective natural secretion of oleaginous 
material, to increase the activity of the skin, 
and to diminish susceptibility to cold. How this 
is accomplished, readily appears. The oil is a 
simple substitute for the sebaceous secretion, 
which is, in a certain class of diseases, notably 
deficient. The thorough manipulation of the 
skin which is necessary in applying the oil, and 
which is facilitated by a lubricant, directly pro- 
motes cutaneous activity. Whether the oil itself 
has any direct effect in increasing the functional 
activity of the skin cannot be positively affirmed, 
although it is reasonably supposable that the 
skin will act more nearly normal when a defi- 
cient element is supplied than when it is want- 
ing. Oil is an excellent non-conductor ; and in- 
valids who are especially susceptible to cold may 
be rendered comfortable by the application of the 
oil bath. 

The class of cases to which this remedy is ap- 
plicable will be sufficiently well indicated by the 
purposes which the bath is supposed to subserve. 
It should not be used indiscriminately. Once or 
twice a week is sufficiently often to make the ap- 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 149 

plication, and each should be followed by a warm 
bath with fine soap, two or three days after. 

NOVEL BATHS. 

Numerous substances have been employed in 
bathing, under the idea that they possessed pe- 
culiar specific virtues ; the following are some of 
the chief: — 

Mud Bath. — Immersion of the body in warm 
mud has been a favorite practice at several places 
in Italy, France, Germany, and other countries. 
The effects are not very different from those of 
any warm bath, and are said to be very pleasant, 
by those who have taken them. If the mud 
were not medicated, this kind of bath would not 
be especially objectionable for those who could 
enjoy it. 

Earth Bath. — Burying the body in the moist 
earth has also been practiced. We have known 
of one instance in which this remedy was success- 
fully used in the treatment of ague. 

Bees' eggs, milk, blood, wine, sand, and gelatine 
have also been employed by different nations, at 
different periods, in bathing. None of these ap- 
plications are superior to pure water, which all 
nature recognizes as the proper material for bath- 
ing purposes. 

ENEMA. 

Fecal accumulations in the lower bowel are 
more quickly and easily removed by an enema of 
warm water than by any purgative, laxative, or 



150 USES OF WATER. 

cathartic ever discovered or invented; and the 
use of this remedy is never accompanied by the 
unpleasant and painful griping and tenesmus 
which often accompany the use of cathartics. 
The administration is a trifle more troublesome, 
but the results are enough superior to more than 
repay the inconvenience. The fountain syringe 
is far preferable to any other for administering 
injections. Water about blood- warm should be 
used when the purpose is to relieve constipation, 
and a considerable quantity — one to three pints, 
or more — may be used. The water should be re- 
tained for a few minutes, while the bowels are 
kneaded and shaken. In hemorrhage and in- 
flammation of the lower bowel, cool or cold 
clysters should be employed, and should be re- 
tained as long as possible. The copious cool 
enema is a valuable antiphlogistic remedy used 
in conjunction with the cool bath in cases of vi- 
olent febrile excitement, as typhoid fever, when 
the temperature rises above 103° F. 

The enema is a most perfect substitute for 
purgatives in general. Cases are very rare in 
which a cathartic drug will be found necessary if 
the enema is properly used. But the enema may 
become a source of mischief if abused. If habit- 
ually relied upon to secure a movement of the 
bowels for a long time, the bowels lose their ac- 
tivity, and the most obstinate constipation some- 
times results, precisely as from the prolonged use 
of purgatives. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 151 

WATER EMETIC. 

Warm water at about 92° — not hot water — is 
a most excellent emetic if taken in sufficient 
quantity. It is prompt in action, and is unac- 
companied by the painful nausea, retching, and 
straining produced by most other emetics. From 
half a pint to one or two quarts is required to 
produce emesis. The patient should slowly 
swallow a tumblerful, then rest two or three 
minutes, and swallow another, so continuing to 
drink for ten minutes or more. As soon as the 
slightest disposition to vomit is felt — or even if 
it is not felt, after a considerable quantity of wa- 
ter has been taken — the patient should touch the 
back part of his mouth with the end of his fin- 
ger or a feather, as far down as he can reach. 
This will usually excite the desired action. If it 
does not, all that need be done is to continue 
drinking. A little salt added to the water will 
make it more sickening, and will do no particular 
harm, as it is thrown out again. 

It is not claimed that the warm- water emetic 
can replace all other emetics in all cases. When 
instant vomiting is necessary, as in cases of pois- 
oning, some more prompt emetic may be used 
with it. But for all ordinary purposes, it clearly 
has no rival. 

DRY HOT APPLICATIONS. 

The use of fomentations is often less conven- 
ient or desirable than dry applications of heat, 



152 USES OF WATER. 

which may be made in a variety of ways. Bot- 
tles, jugs, or rubber bags, filled with hot water, 
hot bricks or stones, wrapped in papers or cloths, 
hot cloths, bags filled with hot sand, salt, or corn 
meal, are all convenient methods of applying dry 
heat. 

A few suggestions with reference to the man- 
ner of using hot applications may be useful. In 
applying heat to the feet when the circulation in 
those organs is defective, it is frequently insuffi- 
cient to apply the heat to the bottoms of the feet, 
only. For this reason, jugs or bottles and stones 
are often applied without effecting any satisfactory 
results. A much more efficient method is the fol- 
lowing : Heat to a suitable temperature two or 
three pounds of corn meal or salt. Place the 
salt or meal in a bag sufficiently large to envelop 
the feet. After distributing it evenly through 
the bag, wrap the latter about the feet and cover 
them with a woolen blanket. A rubber bag par- 
tially filled with hot water is an excellent appli- 
ance for use in cases of neuralgia, toothache, and 
nearly all acute pains in the region of the head, 
as it will conform so perfectly to the shape of 
the part to which it is applied, and may be used 
as a pillow. 

As a general rule, hot applications should not 
be continued more than an hour or two, at long- 
est, without, at least, a transient application of a 
lower temperature. Too prolonged an applica- 
tion may result in injury to the part. 



APPLICATIONS OF WATER. 153 

WATER-DRINKING. 

As a remedial agent, water is of far greater 
value than any other liquid taken into the stom- 
ach. Its uses in preserving health have been 
previously noticed. Under ordinary circum- 
stances, a person in health who discards irritat- 
ing condiments from his diet seldom requires 
drink. Many persons take no drink whatever 
during the winter months. But drinking is 
healthful, and pure water of proper temperature 
may be taken by any one in health or disease if 
it is taken in the proper manner. Drinking at 
meals is an unwholesome practice. Drinking 
large quantities of iced water is unhealthful. 
Cold water should not be taken freely when the 
drinker is hot or exhausted. The thirst will be 
quenched as readily by slowly sipping a small 
quantity. In fevers, water should be freely al- 
lowed. A glass of cool water taken half an hour 
before breakfast is an excellent remedy for ha- 
bitual constipation. 

Water-drinking may be made a means of bath- 
ing the internal structures, as external applica- 
tions bathe the outside. Water is rapidly ab- 
sorbed by the mucous membrane of the stomach, 
and, passing through the circulation, it dissolves 
many impurities, and is eliminated chiefly by the 
kidneys and skin. It can be used with benefit 
in connection with the vapor bath, hot-air bath, 
and all baths in which sweating is induced. It 

Water. K 



154 USES OF WATER* 

should not be used in such great excess as it was 
employed by the early hydropathists, however, 
whose patients drank from ten to thirty glasses 
of water a day. 

Free drinking of water is useful in cases in 
which the urine is scanty and irritating. It 
gives relief by diluting the urinary excretions. 

HOW TO MAKE A FILTER. 

For drinking, and for all ordinary purposes, it 
is of the greatest importance that water should 
be as pure as possible. When water which is 
nearly soft, and wholly free from organic im- 
purities, cannot be obtained from wells or springs, 
filtered rain water should be employed. A very 
useful filter can be easily and cheaply constructed 
in the following manner : — 

Make a hole low down in the side, or in the 
bottom, of a large earthen jar or fiower-pot. 
Place in the bottom of the vessel a few clean 
stones about the size of eggs. Fill the jar to 
within two or three inches ol the top with equal 
parts of fine, clean gravel and pulverized char- 
coal. Cover the jar with a clean, white cloth, 
securing the edges by a string drawn about the 
top. The center of the cloth cover should be al- 
lowed to hang down into the vessel so as to form 
a hollow into which the water may be poured, 
the cloth serving as a strainer to remove the 
coarser dirt. The cloth should be frequently 
cleansed, and the gravel and charcoal should be 
renewed at least once a year. 



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selves of this opportunity for obtaining just whattbey need for their health, 
comfort, and convenience. 

Garment and Stocking Supporters are also kept at this Office. 

V Address, HEALTH REFORMER, 

Battle Creek , Mich. 



Health Reform Institute, 

Battle Cmeek 9 Mich* 



This Institution is admirably located on a site of twenty 
acres, in the highest part of the pleasant and enterprising 
city of Battle Creek, commanding a fine prospect, and af- 
fording ample opportunities for entertainment, quiet, and 
retirement. 

With a competent corps of Physicians and Helpers, it of- 
fers to the sick inducements that are offered by few others. 
Diseases are treated in a thorough and scientific manner, 
and with a degree of success impossible under any other mode 
of treatment. The principal curative agents employed are 

Electricity, Water, Swedish Moyements, Hot -Air 
Bath, and Russian Yapor Bath. 

BATTLE CREEK is an important station on the Michigan 
Central and Chicago & Lake Huron Railroads, and is easy 
of access from all parts of the country. i g@ to For Particulars 
see Circular, sent Free on application. 

Address, HEALTH INSTITUTE, 

Battle Creek, Mich. 

Till C1III C0LL1B 



n. 

The College building is both AMPLE and ELEGANT, and 
the grounds are LARGE and BEAUTIFUL. The corps of 
Professors comprises Instructors in all the English branches, 
the Natural Sciences, and both Ancient and Modern Lan- 
guages, One of the chief attractions of this Institution is 
the fact that it is 

Conducted on Hygienic Principles. 

The Professors are all hygienists, and inculcate hygienic 
truths in their daily instructions. The College has a full 
Charter from the State, and is empowered to confer Diplomas. 

TERMS of TUITION are very reasonable. Good hygienic 
board can be obtained at very moderate rates. 

Terms for 1876-7 open as follows: Fall Term, August 30, continuing 16 
week. Winter Term, January 3, continuing 12 weeks. Spring Term, April 
31, continuing 12 weeks. All who wish further information should send for 
the Annual Catalogue. 

Address, BATTLE CREEK COLLEGE, 

Battle Creek, Mich. 



IMPROVED WATER FILTER. 

rpiHE accompanying cut is a representation 
JL of one of the greatest and most usefu I 
inventious of the age — Kedzie's Improved 
Water Filter. 

Its mechanism is so perlect that it accoiu- 
plishes all that could be expected or desired 
of a niter to accompli 8h, and without the be- 
stowal of more than the slightest amount of 
attention. It removes from water all those 
products of decay and disease which are the 
most prolific causes of sickness and death. 

THOUSANDS USE THEM 

And admire them, and all are ready to test- 
ify to their efficiency and utility. No family 
should be without one ; for it is impossible to 
obtain from springs or wells water which is, 
in all respects, so free Irom injurious proper- 
ties as is soft filtered water. 
Five sizes are manfuactured to suit the wants of all. The following table 
gives their dimensions : — 

No. 1, 25 inches high, reservoir holds 2 gallons. 

" 2, 27 " " " " 2% « 

« 3, 29 " " " " 3 " 

« 4 31 " " " " 3% " 

" 5, 32 «' " " " 4 " 

Prices. No. 1, $9.00 ; No. 2, $10.50 ; No. 3, $12.00 ; No. 4, $13.50; No. 5, 
$15.00. Orders promptly filled. 
Address, Health Meformer, Battle Creek, Mich, 




FOUNTAIN SYRINGE. 

THESE syringes have 
become so popular 
through the general rec- 
ognition of their excellen- 
cies, that they have almost 
entirely superseded a 1 1 
other styles for most pur- 
poses. The principal ad- 
vantages which they offer 
over others are the follow- 
ing : 1. They are self-act- 
ing, no pumping being re- 
quired ; 2. They are valve- 
less, and so simple in con- 
struction that they cannot 
get out of order ; 3. They 
do not inject air, and thus 
do not endanger the pa- 
; tient; 4. By means of 
the sprinkler attachment, 
light shower baths can be 
administered. 5. Various other attachments adapt them to use for every 
part of the body. 6. The evenness of action with which they operate makes 
them superior to every other syriDge. 

No family should be without one of these syringes. They are used ex- 
clusively at the Health Institute. 
Prices. No. 1, $2.50 ; No. 2, $3.00 ; No. 3, $3.60. 
Address, Health Reformer, Battle Creek, Mich, 




HEALTH REFORMER. 

A MOU8MMOLB) MONTHLY. 
ONLY $1.00 A YEAR. 



The Reformer is emphatically a Family Journal, being cheap, 
plain, and practical, qualities which have won for it the 

Largest Circulation of any Health Journal in America. 

Radical, but not ultra; devoted to no party, but friendly to all 
reforms; having no creed but nature's laws; unpartisan, unsec- 
tarian, humamtarian, 

Though the journal is chiefly devoted to health, in consequence 
of the prevailing "hard times" the publishers have recently 
added several departments which make it more fully than ever 

A JOURNAL FOR THE HOUSEHOLD. 

Health, Temperance, General Literature, 
Science, News, 

And many other interesting and practical subjects receive due 
attention in its monthly columns. 

The journal is now in its eleventh year, and its liberal and in- 
creasing patronage insures its future prosperity. Every number 
contains information worth more than the whole year's subscrip- 
tion, about How to Preserve Health and 'How to Treat Disease 
with Simple Remedies. 

It has saved scores of doctors' bills in thousands of families, 
together with years of sickness, and many lives. 

TERMS: $1.00 a Year, Post-paid. 

Six Months on Trial for 50 cts. 

Ji^T Send Address for Specimen Copy. a ^a 

Address, Health Mmfommem 9 - 

Battle Creek, Mich* 



